


𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙙𝙚𝙘𝙞𝙥𝙝𝙚𝙧

by orphan_account



Category: NCT (Band), WAYV
Genre: Apocalypse, Based on Maze runner, Character Death, Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten-centric, Future Fic, Kun as Newt, Kunten (platonic??), Lucas as Minho, More tags to be added, Multi, Non-Idol AU, Part 1, Slow Updates, Taeyong as Alby, Ten as Thomas, The Maze Runner setting, Violence, Yangyang as Chuck, character centric
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-06
Updated: 2021-01-23
Packaged: 2021-03-16 23:53:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 25,708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28590579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: He woke up.Woke up. Awake, awake, awake, his mind rang a chorus but from what? A question that somehow arose with his consciousness. The big words in his mind weren't making sense, weren't making sense, sense, sense. Sense of what? Why does he feel the need for some alien syllables to have a meaning. Meaning. And what is that?He doesn't even know his name.---Or NCT but in Maze Runner.(I'm bad at summaries I swear the content will be better)
Relationships: Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten & Everyone, Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten/Everyone, Minor Kunten - Relationship, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 5





	1. Chapter 1

_The chapter won't hold a character introduction, I've added the tags to help and later with chapters you can meet each one of them!_

_Plus I might change them since I only have a few characters decided in my mind right now._

_Please do read warnings before you proceed !_

_\- mentions of blood._

_\- character death._

_\- detailed scenes of deaths._

_\- slight horror themes._

_\- very minor mental health topics (not detailed)._

_\- mature language (?) [ curse words ]_

**Now that we're done with the warnings and possible triggers, please read this description (rant) below (or even if you ignore it then I can't really do anything─ yeah just, please read it.)**

_• The book will not contain any mature content, not even implied most probably romantic references will be minor. I apologize I'm not good with that so I'll keep it very subtle and leave you all up to your imagination; still I'll give a heavy plot for ships if you need that._

_• Not forgetting, the book is heavily based on the series maze runner. I will be making some changes of my own but the influence will remain heavy, aka same storyline mostly but the changes I make will be a whole lot. Unlike the book, this one will not hold a 300 page work; since I'm not that experienced but I'll try my best to give enough explanation in all the incidences I add; and on that note, I actually will make the chapters slightly longer than there originally are and add more events._

_• Updates are slow, I'm a high school student and I have quite some work up my sleeves so I apologize in advance in case I don't send updates in maybe even a month or more. I'll try to update on a member's birthday/holidays though._

_• Other NCT members will be side characters, but wayv members will be the one taking lead roles. Please don't be mad if your favorite member isn't one of the people on the right side/doesn't have a big screen time/is one of the ones faited to die. Also the story still has a person centric so others will hold a little smaller role than protagonist but it'll be big enough._

_• I will not be adding accurate description of people, it's gonna be rough and can vary from what the person looks like since people's looks are described from the protagonist's view and everyone's opinions vary largly._

_• This will have a lot of SM artists and they might take a negative/disliked role however I like all of them so the reason I assign them these roles would not be based on the fact of how much I like them but a random pick based on the fact if I find them fitting the description. Reminder again ; this is wayv centric so if your favourite aren't in a big role its because I need to include wayv more._

_• Maybe I'll give them special dedications to let their feelings bloom and a shine of light in between but not more than that. Do remember, I have a plot to carry and it'll be awful if I forget that._

_• ( If this story gets viewers I might hold poles for character reveals/deaths/faceclaims. The second and third part to be ever written will also depend on this because I don't want to write for walls─ )_

_• Female love interests /will/ appear even though they will be very few and the romance point stays the same, I'm not good at it so I doubt pairs will be made. Plus I'd write more LGBT couples-_

_• Not to forget, please do forgive me when I write names like "Newt, Thomas, Chuck" instead if the idol's names. I have been doing it a lot while I'm trying to complete and edit the first two chapters, somehow the character names keep popping up in my head._

Enjoy as I loose my last braincell over this. 


	2. Chapter 2

He woke up.

Woke up. Awake, awake, awake, his mind rang a chorus but from what? A question that somehow arose with his consciousness. The big words in his mind weren't making sense, weren't making sense, sense, sense. Sense of what? Why does he feel the need for some alien syllables to have a meaning. Meaning. And what is that? He rather not drive himself mad in this box. A gesture to calm himself (he assumes) his left hand went to his chest and he took a deep breath. Better. What is exactly the state of being awake? And why does he know it- wait, how?

When? Where? A sudden jerk jolted him out of the constant whirlpool of thoughts he was drowning into and he took a huge gasp. Red lights started to blind his barely open eyes and a hand immediately covered them to save himself. The urching shudder shook the floor beneath him. He fell down at the sudden movement and shuffled backward on his hands and feet, drops of sweat beading on his forehead despite the cool air. His back struck a hard metal wall. He slid along it until he hit the corner of the room. Sinking to the floor, he pulled his legs up tight against his body, hoping he would wake up from this _bad_ bad dream.

His mind functioned without flaw, trying to calculate his surroundings and predicament. Knowledge flooded his thoughts, facts and images, memories and details of the world and how it works. He pictured snow on trees, running down a leaf-strewn road, eating a hamburger, the moon casting a pale glow on a grassy meadow, swimming in a lake, a busy city square with hundreds of people bustling about their business.

And yet he didn't know where he came from, or how he'd gotten inside the dark lift, or who his parents were. He didn't even know his name. Images of people flashed Across his mind, but there was no recognition, their faces replaced with haunted smears of colours. He couldn't think of one person he knew, or recall a single conversation. The room continued its ascent, swaying; Thomas grew immune to the ceaseless rattling of the chains that pulled him upward. A long time passed.

Minutes stretched into hours, although it was impossible to know for sure because every second seemed an eternity. No. He was smarter than that. He should be smarter than that and believe himself. Trusting his instincts, he knew he'd been moving for roughly half an hour. He wanted to know where he was and what was happening. With a groan and then a clonk, the rising room halted; the sudden change jolted him from his huddled position and threw him across the hard floor. As he scrambled to his feet, he felt the room sway less and less until it finally stilled.

Everything fell silent.   
A minute passed. Two. He looked in every direction but saw only darkness.

With another jolt, the room jerked upward like an old lift in a mine shaft. Harsh sounds of chains and pulleys, like the workings of an ancient steel factory, echoed through the room, bouncing off the walls. He wanted to cry, but no tears came; he could only sit there, alone.

Pain, pain, pain, pain; intense pain. Save, save, save. Reflex, but of what? He didn't have the time to question those things as his ears stopped ringing and he turned his head towards a rustling noise. Something moved amongst the little wooden boxes beside him that were taking half of the space in this... cage. He didn't move, didn't know what to do for a moment and a sudden sharp cry reached his throat, " _Help me!"_

He gasped, first time listening to his own voice. It was a little higher than he had imagined, bur not too awfully pitched. There was a small cage rattling in the corner. As soon as he moved his hand towards it, a thing popped up and its sharp teeth got the hold of his fingers. Crying in pain he jerked the hand but the hold was too tight.

After a good amount of pulls, the creature seemed to be at ease and let him go. He gripped his hand in a hold, red gushed out of him. Blood, blood, blood. Blood stained him and another jolt brought the thing to a stop. Above him, something opened and bright light hit him. He tried to cover it with his hands, his eyes hurting from the sun. There were voices above him. A lot of voices. He could barely make something out of them but someone lifted whatever he was in and jumped in, a hand extended toward him.

"Hey, welcome to NCT." He hears a deep voice and then he's pulled up on his feet, a tall man grabs his hand and immediately throws him out. The boys, he assumes from the short hair and deeper pitched voices, laugh around him in a sort of circle. He heard noises above-voices-and fear squeezed his chest.

_"Look at that shank."_   
_"How old is he?"_   
_"Looks like a_ _klunk_ _in a T-shirt."_   
_"Dude, it smells like feet down there!"_   
_"Hope you enjoyed the one-way trip, Neo."_

He was hit with a wave of confusion, blistered with panic. The voices were odd, tinged with echo; some of the words were completely foreign-others felt familiar. He willed his eyes to adjust as he squinted toward the light and those speaking. At first he could see only shifting shadows, but they soon turned into the shapes of bodies-people bending over the hole in the ceiling, looking down at him, pointing. And then, as if the lens of a camera had sharpened its focus, the faces cleared. They were boys, all of them-some young, some older. He didn't know what he'd expected, but seeing those faces puzzled him.

They were just teenagers. Kids. Some of his   
fear melted away, but not enough to calm his racing heart. Confused, confused, confused.

Run, run, run. His mind blanks out before he can make out why he wants to run and he speeds up from where he is. There are cheers behind him. "The neo is running!", "Neo got some speed.", "Lucas has a competitor now." He didn't understand those words but they didn't matter.

He ran till he tripped and then face planted. "Woah, Neo isn't a competition I guess." He hears a childish voice and gets up on his feet with a little struggle, looking around. He sees walls. Big walls surrounding them in a huge circle. Other than that? Green, green, green. There's a vast space of grass and one side of the door is open. He looks at it and starts running immediately.

As soon as he bolts there, everyone's happy expression changes and the crowd gets tensed, a few murmurs exchange and there's a bunch of boys running behind him trying to chase him. But he wouldn't stop, no. Not here, not now. He doesn't know why exactly, there's not a plan in his head to follow even if he does manage to make it outside somehow. And who even knows what's outside? It looks greasy and there's random plants growing on and from inside the walls. Creepy. He doesn't mind though, right now, these people ─ unknown strangers are just as creepy. What if they capture him? What if they _kill_ him? He certainly doesn't want to die without any idea of anything.

So he runs until he's almost at the gates. Almost. before he can step outside even once, something comes quick and hits his leg making him fall down instantly and he lands on his back. A wooden stick. There's a boy standing at quite a good distance so he can't see the face of the person who threw that but he knows, knows that they're good at it for the aim to be this sharp. He can't see it clearly but he makes out the figure of the boy.

Before his mind processes more things, a tall man comes in his view and grabs his collar dragging him up and then with them. He catches a few people looking at him and he doesn't bother telling them to mind their own business. Not when he doesn't even know what his' is. They stop in front of a poorly covered hole and then throw him inside. "You stay here until you get yourself together." The man says and he grits his teeth but doesn't fight back.

Not because he's intimidated, no. He in fact is very intimidated but he's not a coward. He's curious, eager to know. Know more. More. But this alien situation he's been put up in, where he doesn't even know what he should call himself, he feels scared. Wait ─ he doesn't know his name. A sudden panic rises and he grabs the mud below him in order to get some leverage. His breathing becomes faster and heavier, just when he's about to almost loose consciousness, someone lifts the cross designed door and looks down at him.

"Come on Neo. Punishment time over, let's get you see your new place."

\----

He looked at his captors, two boys had been holding both his hands as the boy before was walking in front of him. He had sort of long hair, reaching his neck but not long enough like girls ─ girls? Before he could question that he was nudged, so he followed, feeling awkward but desperate to ask questions. _Captors_ , he thought. Then, _Why did that word pop into my head?_ He scanned their faces, taking in each expression, judging them. One boy's eyes, flared with hatred, stopped him cold. He looked so angry, he wouldn't have been surprised if the boy came at him with a knife. He had curly hair, and when they made eye contact, the boy shook his head and turned away, walking toward a greasy iron pole with a small metal grey bench next to it. A green flag hung limply at the top of the pole, no wind to reveal its pattern.

Shaken, he stared at the boy's back until he turned and took a seat. Suddenly the leader of the group- he assumed since everyone was following his orders -took a step forward. He wore normal clothes: a white loose shirt, dark pants and sports shoes. For some reason he was surprised by the clothing here; he assumed everyone should be wearing something more... unclean? The boy was _slightly_ taller than him, barely visible if he stood that straight as well and he had a sharp jawline, his face clean shaven. Other than the permanent scowl, there was nothing scary about him at all. After staring at him for long enough he found his voice and muttered, slightly pitched, "Wh-where am I?"

"It's a long story, neo" the boy said. "Piece by piece, you'll learn-I'll be takin' you on the Tour tomorrow. Till then... Just don't start running like you did before." He held a hand out. "Name's Taeyong." He waited, clearly wanting to shake hands. He refused. Some instinct took over his actions and without saying anything he turned away from Taeyong and walked to a nearby tree.

"Then tell me," He called out, struggling to keep his voice even. "Tell me the long story." Taeyong smiled, almost smirked and glanced at the friends closest to him, rolling his eyes, and he studied the crowd again. His original estimate had been close-there were probably around 30 to 40 of them, ranging from boys in their mid-teens to young adults like Taeyong, who seemed to be one of the oldest. At that moment, he realized with a sickening lurch that he had no idea how old he was. His heart sank at the thought, he was so lost he didn't even know his own age, not just his name.

They stood in a vast courtyard several times the size of a football field, he had observed that before but not in detail, surrounded by four enormous walls made of gray stone and covered in spots with thick ivy. The walls had to be hundreds of feet high and formed a perfect square around them, each side split in the exact middle by an opening as tall as the walls themselves that, from what He could see, led to passages and long corridors beyond. _The place he had tried to run to._

"Look at the Neo glowing" a scratchy voice said; he couldn't see who it came from. "Gonna break his neck checking out the new digs." Several boys laughed. "Shut your cluck Jaehyun." a deeper voice responded. He focused back in on the dozens of strangers around him. He knew he must look out of it - he felt like he'd been drugged. A short, pudgy boy fidgeted back and forth on his feet, looking up at Thomas with wide eyes, the boy who had stayed behind. Countless others stared from their work itself.

"Which Keeper he gonna get?" someone shouted from the group of boys doing _planting._ "I told ya, shuck-face," a soft voice responded. "He's a klunk, so he'll be a Slopper- no doubt about it." The boy giggled like he'd just said the funniest thing in history. He once again felt a pressing ache of confusion-hearing so many words and phrases that didn't make sense.

Shank. Shuck. Keeper. Slopper. They popped out of the boys' mouths so naturally it seemed odd for him not to understand. It was as if his memory loss had stolen a chunk of his language- it was disorienting. Different emotions battled for dominance in his mind and heart. Confusion.

"Seriously," he said, giving up on the show of courage (or rebellion?) "Where am I?" Taeyong walked over to him and sat down cross-legged; the crowd of boys followed but he sent them off, just one kid left behind. Then he realized he had spoken something different than he did before. "What did you say? Chinese?" He shook his head at the foreign word. Honestly, he didn't know what he used either. "Alright Neo, you need Kun's guidance later, I can't do Chinese and that was definitely not English." Heads popped up here and there, kids leaning in every direction to get a better look.

Before he could open his mouth the kid beat him to it. "It's not Chinese. it's something like Lucas speaks once in a while." Who was Lucas again? He didn't even know half of the words.

"You're nowhere good." This came from Taeyong who seemed to be answering him ignoring the language dilemma they had in between. "Just slim yourself nice and calm." He shifted uncomfortably and Taeyong caught that. "If you ain't scared," Taeyong said, "you ain't human. Act any different and I'd throw you off the Cliff because it'd mean you're a psycho." "The Cliff?" He asked, blood draining from his face. The place didn't look like it could have a cliff, but then again, what did he even know about this place? "Shuck it, I'm not good at babysitting." Taeyong said, rubbing his eyes and nodded his head in no particular direction "Go call Kun, he's better at this job."

The kid nodded excitedly and ran. They sat there, him and Taeyong just in silence waiting for the boy to come. This was the second time he had called for that foreign name and it made him eager to meet him. _Who's the guy their leader needs so much? Babysitting? Can't he not have an attitude for a minute?_

"Hey Kun!" The boy shouted, voice heard till where they sat and then after a few word exchange he came running back. "Kun is busy. Said he's working on the new hut then there's someone in med bay recently, an animal escaped-" There were several shouts for the name 'Kun' and he was wondering if that boy is the leader instead but before the kid could continue is list he was stopped. "Right eight no need for hus schedule, I understand he's busy. Anyway, this is no way to start these conversations, you get me? We don't kill newbies like you here, I promise. Just try and avoid being killed, survive and all that, whatever."

He paused, and he realized his face must've whitened even more when he heard that last part. "Man," Taeyong said, then ran his hands over his short hair as he let out a long sigh. "I'm not good at this-you're the first neo since Minseok was killed." His eyes widened, and another boy came, playfully slapped Taeyong across the head. It was the boy from before, the one who threw the stick making him fall. "Wait for the bloody Tour, Taeyong" he said, his voice soft but had an odd accent. "Kid's gonna have a heart attack, nothing even been heard yet." He stepped forward and extended his hand toward Ten "Name's Kun, Neo, and we'd all be right cheery if ya'd forgive our klunk-for-brains leader, here."

He reached out and shook the boy's hand-he seemed a lot nicer than Taeyong. Kun was taller than him too, maybe a few centimeters or so? But looked to be a year or so younger. His hair was blond and slightly longer, cascading over his T-shirt. Veins stuck out of his muscled arms lightly from work but he looked overall soft and not that seeing. He was healthy, not skinny in size but had smaller shoulders than most boys around their age. He had a round face and welcoming eyes. He looked.. _domestic._

"Pipe it, shuck-face," Taeyong grunted, pulling Kun down to sit next to him. "At least he can understand half my words. This is Kun, second in command." There were a few scattered laughs, and then everyone gathered behind Taeyong and Kun, packing in even tighter, waiting to hear what they said. "He speaks Chinese I think." Kun raises his eyebrow on that and starts speaking some more foreign words he doesn't get at all. He must've looked helpless as the boy laughs at his face. "Look at the shank, he doesn't get a word of it, I doubt he even speaks cantonese." More foreign words escaped his lips and after a while he sighed.

" **Get this?** " Kun said and he found himself understanding. " **Yes but** -" " **Thai. You're probably Thai.** " Muttering the same to the other man, he settled a little more relaxed. Taeyong nodded and then spread his arms out, palms up. "This place is called the Neozone, all right? It's where we live, where we eat, where we sleep-we call ourselves the NCT. We have further people divided into 'units'. That's all you-"

"Who sent me here?" he demanded, fear finally giving way to anger and frustration "How'd-" But Taeyong's hand shot out before he could finish, grabbing him by the shirt as he leaned forward on his knees. "Get up, shank, get up!" Taeyong stood, pulling him with.

He finally got his feet under him, scared all over again from the aggressive voice. He backed against the tree, trying to get away from Taeyong, who stayed right in his face. "No klunk running boy!" Taeyong shouted. "Whacker, if we told you everything, you'd die on the spot, right after you klunked your pants. Baggers'd drag you off, and you ain't no good to us then, are ya? Since you're so afraid to die you better take this as serious as getting thrown off the cliff."

"I don't even know what you're talking about," he said slowly, shocked at how steady his voice sounded despite being scared like a prey.

Kun reached out and grabbed Taeyong by the shoulders and rubbed it lightly with his slim fingers "Taeyong, lay off a bit. You're hurting more than helping, ya know?" The boy's words seemed to get in his head more than his and he let go of his shirt and stepped back, his chest heaving with breaths. "Nobody's got time to be nice, Neo. Old life's over, new life's begun. Learn the rules quick, listen, don't talk. You get me?" His deep voice as harsh as before and it looked like as soon as the blonde's grip would losen, the man would come running like a wild animal to hunt him.

His looked over at Kun, hoping for help. Everything inside him churned and hurt; the tears that had yet to come burned his eyes and Kun looked like he was someone he could lean on, despite not knowing the boy at all, someone who hit him when he first came, yet he looked calming and a sense of security shielded him.

Somehow, he found himself feeling better with Kun. He didn't know why. He had expected himself to be a little distant and angry of who did that to him but something about the blonde man, something about him was pulling. Familiar.

Kun nodded understandingly and pushes Taeyong lightly to his own side. "Neo, you get him, right?" he fumed, wanted to punch somebody but he simply said, "Yeah." "Good that," Taeyong said. "First Day. That's what today is for you, shank. Night's comin', Runners'll be back soon. The Box came late today, ain't got time for the Tour. Tomorrow morning, right after the wake-up." He turned towards Kun. "Get him a bed, get him to sleep."

"Good that," Kun replied with a smile and his cheeks slightly puffed, spotting dimples on them.

For a second, Taeyong's eyes softened and a hint of smile appeared but returned to him, narrowing. "A few weeks, you'll be happy, shank. You'll be happy and helping. None of us knew jack on First Day, you neither. New life begins tomorrow." Taeyong turned and left towards the planters and then headed for the slanted, wooden building in the corner.

Most of the kids wandered away then, each one giving him a lingering look before they walked off to their own work. He folded his arms, closed his eyes, took a deep breath. Emptiness ate away at his insides, quickly replaced by a sadness that hurt his heart. It was all too much-where was he? What was this place? Was it some kind of prison? If so, why had he been sent here, and for how long? The language was odd, and none of the boys seemed to care whether he lived or died. Tears threatened again to fill his eyes, but he refused to let them come.

"What did I do?" he whispered, not really meaning for anyone to hear him. "What did I do-why'd they send me here?" Kun placed a hand on his shoulder, giving it a light squeeze of _reassurance_. "Neo, what you're feeling, we've all felt it. We've all had First Day, come out of that dark box. Things are bad here, they are, and they'll get much worse for ya soon, that's the truth. I won't hug you to my chest and tell you it's okay because it's not. But down the road a piece, you'll be fighting true and good. I can tell you're not a bloody sissy."

"Is this a prison?" He asked after a long pause and a slight nod; he dug in the darkness of his thoughts, trying to find a crack to his past. "Done asking your questions, haven't ya?" Kun replied. He immediately shook his head and the latter stood with his arms crosses. "Are there no books here?" He asked and the other burst out laughing.

"You look quite smart to see for yourself." Some planters around them laughed along and then Kun faced him, face still stretched from smiling brightly and he shook his head too. "No. There aren't any books here, bloody heck, you just stepped here and you already want papers huh? We already don't have any." "We have more paper than women here though." One of the planters said laughing and his friend laughed along. "I bet Ten misses the women like we do." For a second Kun got awkward almost. _"Thank god I don't need them."_ He heard a faint mutter from him but didn't question him and just nodded.

"Best be quiet now, accept the change-morning comes tomorrow." he said nothing, his head sunk, his eyes staring at the cracked, rocky ground. A line of small-leafed weeds ran along the edge of one of the stone blocks, tiny yellow flowers peeping through as if searching for the sun, long disappeared behind the enormous walls of the Glade, just like the walls were outside those gates.

"Yangyang be a good fit for you," Kun said. "Wee little skinny shank, but a nice sap when all's said and done. Stay here, I'll be back." Kun had barely finished his sentence when a sudden, piercing scream ripped through the air. High and shrill, the barely human shriek echoed across the stone courtyard; every kid in sight turned to look toward the source. Thomas felt his blood turn to icy slush as he realized that the horrible sound came from the wooden building.

Even Kun had jumped as if startled, he looked sad, his forehead creasing in concern. "Shuck it," he said. "Can't the bloody Med-jacks handle that boy for ten minutes without needing my help?" He shook his head and lightly kicked Ten on the foot. "Find yang, tell him he's in charge of your sleeping arrangements." And then he turned and headed in the direction of the building, running.

He slid down the rough face of the tree until he sat on the ground again; he shrank back against the bark and closed his eyes, wishing he could wake up from this terrible, terrible dream.

\-----

He sat there for several moments, too overwhelmed to move. He finally forced himself to look over at the haggard building. A group of boys milled around outside, glancing anxiously at the upper windows as if expecting a hideous beast to leap out in an explosion of glass and wood.

A metallic clicking sound from the branches above grabbed his attention, made him look up; a flash of silver and red light caught his eyes just before disappearing around the trunk to the other side. He scrambled to his feet and walked around the tree, craning his neck for a sign of whatever he'd heard, but he saw only bare branches, gray and brown, forking out like skeleton fingers-and looking just as alive. "That was one of them beetle blades," someone said.

He turned to his right to see a kid standing nearby, short and skinny, staring at him. He was young-probably the youngest of any in the group he'd seen so far, maybe twelve or thirteen years old. His dark hair hung down over his ears and neck, scraping the tops of his shoulders. Brown eyes shone through an otherwise pitiful face, sunked in and flushed. He nodded at him. "A beetle what?" "Beetle blade," the boy said, pointing to the top of the tree. "Won't hurt ya unless you're stupid enough to touch one of them." He paused. "Shank." He didn't sound comfortable saying the last word, as if he hadn't quite grasped the slang of the Glade.

Another scream, this one long and nerve-grinding, tore through the air and his heart lurched. The fear was like icy dew on his skin. "What's going on over there?" he asked, pointing at the building.

"Don't know," the lithe boy replied; his voice still carried the high pitch of childhood. "Jaemin's in there, sicker than a dog. They got him." "They?" he didn't like the malicious way the boy had said the word.

"Yeah."

"Who are They?"

"Better hope you never find out," the kid answered, looking far too comfortable for the situation. He held out his hand. "My name's Yangyang. I was the Neo until you showed up." _This is my guide for the night?_ he thought. He couldn't shake his extreme discomfort, and now annoyance crept in as well. Nothing made sense; his head hurt. "Why is everyone calling me Neo?" he asked, shaking Yangyang's hand quickly, then letting go.

"Cuz you're the newest Newbie." Yangyang pointed at Ten and laughed. Another scream came from the house, a sound like a starving animal being tortured. "How can you be laughing?" He asked, horrified by the noise. "It sounds like someone's dying in there." The kid shook his head. "He'll be okay. No one dies if they make it back in time to get the Serum. It's all or nothing. Dead or not dead. Just hurts a lot."

This gave him pause. "What hurts a lot?" Yangyang's eyes wandered as if he wasn't sure what to say. "Um, getting stung by the Grievers." "Grievers?" He was only getting more and more confused. Stung. Grievers. The words had a heavy weight of dread to them, and he suddenly wasn't so sure he wanted to know what Yangyang was talking about.

Yangyang shrugged, then looked away, eyes rolling. He sighed in frustration and leaned back against the tree. "Looks like you barely know more than I do," he said, but he knew it wasn't true. His memory loss was strange. He mostly remembered the workings of the world-but emptied of specifics, faces, names. Like a book completely intact but missing one word in every dozen, making it a miserable and confusing read. He didn't even know his age. "Yangyang, how ... old do you think I am?"

The boy scanned him up and down. "I'd say you're sixteen. And in case you were wondering, five foot nine ... brown hair. Oh, and ugly as fried liver on a stick." He snorted a laugh. "I'm kidding, you're actually kinda good looking." He was so stunned he'd barely heard the last part. Sixteen? He was sixteen? He felt much older than that. "Are you serious?" He paused, searching for words. "How ..." He didn't even know what to ask. "Don't worry. You'll be all whacked for a few days, but then you'll get used to this place. I have. We live here, this is it. Better than living in a pile of klunk."

He squinted, maybe anticipating his question. "Klunk's another word for poo. Poo makes a   
klunk sound when it falls in our pee pots."   
He looked at Yangyang, unable to believe he was having this conversation. "That's nice" was all he could manage. He stood up and walked past yang toward the old building; shack was a better word for the place. It looked three or four stories high and about to fall down at any minute─ a crazy assortment of logs and boards and thick twine and windows seemingly thrown together at random, the massive, ivy-strewn stone walls rising up behind it. As he moved across the courtyard, the distinct smell of firewood and some kind of meat cooking made his stomach grumble.

Knowing now that it was just a sick kid doing the screaming made Thomas feel better. Until he thought about what had caused it ... "What's your name?" Yangyang asked from behind, running to catch up. "What?" "Your name? You still haven't told us-and I know you remember that much." _I don't._ He instantly wanted to say but paused and then looked at him, head swerling, something came in his mind.

"Ten." He barely heard himself say it-his thoughts had spun in a new direction. He was surprised by his own name and for some reason, it sounded weird. If Yangyang was right, he'd just discovered a link to the rest of the boys. A common pattern to their memory losses. They all remembered their names when asked.

Why not their parents' names? Why not friend's name? Why not their last names?

"Nice to meet you, Ten." Yangyang said. "Don't you worry, I'll take care of you. I've been here a whole month, and I know the place inside and out. You can count on Yang, okay?" He had almost reached the front door of the shack and the small group of boys congregating there when he was hit by a sudden and surprise rush of anger. He turned to face Yangyang. "You can't even tell me anything. I wouldn't call that taking care of me."

He turned back toward the door, intent on going inside to find some answers. Where this sudden courage and resolve came from, he had no idea. Yangyang shrugged. "Nothin' I say'll do you any good," he said. "I'm basically still a Newbie, too. But I can be your friend-" "I don't need friends," He interrupted. He'd reached the door, an ugly slab of sun-faded wood, and he pulled it open to see several stoic-faced boys standing at the foot of a crooked staircase, the steps and railings twisted and angled in all directions. Dark wallpaper covered the walls of the foyer and hallway, half of it peeling off.

The only decorations in sight were a dusty vase on a three-legged table and a black-and-white picture of an ancient woman dressed in an old- fashioned white dress. It reminded Thomas of a haunted house from a movie or something. There were even planks of wood missing from the floor.

The place reeked of dust and mildew-a big contrast to the pleasant smells outside. Flickering fluorescent lights shone from the ceiling. He hadn't thought of it yet, but he had to wonder where the electricity came from in a place like the Glade. He stared at the old woman in the picture. Had she lived here once? Taken care of these people? "Hey, look, it's the Neo," one of the older boys called out but he didn't mind it.

He walked back to where the young boy, Yangyang was as he tied his bed, a cloth with rope to both trees with a fallen face. "Hey... look, I'm sorry for that.. earlier." He says and looks at Yangyang who's eyes immediately light up as he looks at him. "Yang." The boy looks up at him with hopeful eyes. "So you'll be my friend?" Ten couldn't be too heartless to deny it.

\-----

One call from a boy and everyone had seemed to gather by the time it was afternoon. There were cups of soup being passed onto everyone, most of the boys sat with familiar people and Yangyang sat beside him. "You don't have any friends?" Ten asked curious and the latter shook his head. "I do. I'm even friends with the cook, Doyoung, he's nice. Some of them don't like me though so I just sit alone mostly, every newbie sits alone. But you have me!" He said brightly and Ten felt bad for the boy.

After a few minutes someone approached them and he looked up at the person, Kun. "There you go Neo. And Yangyang." He handed them two cups and smiled fondly at the kid ruffling his hair. Yangyang seemed to like his presence a lot and gave him a smile with his eyes shining. "Hey Kun. Are you going to sit with us?"

Before he could respond someone shouted 'Kun' in a deep voice and he sighed.

"I'll sit with you later okay? Promise." The kid seemed satisfied with his words as the blonde haired man walked away and hurriedly attached his mouth to the brim of the cup. He took a look at where Kun went, Taeyong immediately grabbing a hold of his hand, whispering something and then they both hurried away. "You're friends with him?" He asked a little surprised. He hadn't expected Kun to talk to people outside work for some reason.

"Yeah, he's friends with mostly everyone.. but he doesn't get to sit with anyone." He describes three boys, a tall boy with short hair and another buff one with his hair slicked up, a comparatively really short and skinny boy with muscles and somewhat wide shoulders; the boys that Kun talked to.

"Lucas, Jaehyun and Xiaojun. They're his friends, the runners, and never let him sit with others. I tried a bit but they seem to find him and take him away." Yangyang looked a little dejected by the little crack in his voice.

"He accompanies me sometimes but generally I'm pushed away considering I'm a kid." Yangyang shrugs and Ten continues staring at them. _Why were they stronger and had the authority to order people around?_ Before thinking more he looked back down at his cup and started drinking it.

Yangyang kept saying random things beside him and he listened to half of them responding shortly but the kid didn't seem to mind, too happy to have a companion. "You know today _they_ will sit with us." It caught his attention and he turned to him. "They?" "The leader and second in hand and the rest of the runners."

It confused Ten. One second this kid was saying they don't sit with them and now he's saying they will so surely. "Huh?" Yangyang smiled and raised his hand as if to motioning to wait while he finished his soup so Ten did the same. "Everytime someone comes up, every month, we have a feist. Big bonfire, drinks - even though I'm not allowed to drink for some reason." He says with a pout and Ten is lost. _Celebration? Feast? For what?_ It didn't sound bad but foreign. A good foreign feeling maybe.

He's awaiting for the feast then.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was contemplating changing the characters. But Kun just fits Newt's description and Ten fits Thomas's so well I couldn't help it. 
> 
> The stubborn and determined + curious nature of Thomas is exactly something I can see in Ten. He's also not someone who will become a side character no matter what. He has skills and luck in his pocket as his magic wand. He will break rules when needed and he likes to bond yet stay away to think. Not to forget, also falling a few inches shorter than Newt.. 
> 
> The caring and protective + trustful nature of Newt is perfectly blended in Kun, he's someone who would let someone go ahead. He's someone that will most likely follow a simple guide and stays around everyone in case of need. At the same time, he's very strong and smart ; helpful, someone you could lean on. Also taller than Thomas and trusts him. 
> 
> And I know, Kun is more of a leader than Ten but Ten is definitely someone who can make decisions Thomas does. Overall their personalities influenced me more than looks. And I think Taeyong deserves the leader spot everywhere. Yangyang is obviously the attached little chick who will stay by Ten and gain his emotional trust.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't edit this one so if there are mistakes, I apologize.

Before he could walk toward the building intriguing him so much he was stopped by a group of boys who threw insults left and right. _Shank._ _Klunk_ _._ Many more words he couldn't name. After a bit of dispute he decided to stand up for himself. "What's your problem? I didn't do anything!" He says fiercely but it didn't affect the boys. The taller boy stepped forward and stared at him squinting his eyes. "I've seen you." Ten froze on that and his breath almost escaped his lungs. _Remember? Seen? Why do I not know him.._

"Griever got ya wettin' yourself?" the boy said through a sneer. "A little scared now? Don't wanna get stung, do ya?" There was that word again. Stung. Ten tried not to think about it and pointed up the stairs, from where the moans of the sick kid echoed through the building. "If Kun went up there, then I wanna talk to him." The boy said nothing, stared at Ten for several seconds. Then he shook his head. "You know what? You're right, _Tennie_ -I shouldn't be so mean to Newbies. Go on upstairs and I'm sure Taeyong and Kun'll fill you in. Seriously, go on. I'm sorry."

He lightly slapped Ten's shoulder, then stepped back, gesturing up the stairs. But Ten knew the kid was up to something. Losing parts of your memory didn't make you an idiot. "What's your name?" Ten asked, stalling for time while he tried to decide if he should go up after all. "Jeno. And don't let anyone fool you. I'm the real leader here, not the two geezer shanks upstairs. Me. You can call me Captain Jeno if you want." He smiled for the first time; his teeth matched his disgusting nose.

Two or three were missing, and not a single one approached anything close to the color white. His breath escaped just enough for Ten to get a whiff, reminding him of some horrible memory that was just out of reach. It made his stomach turn.

"Okay," he said, so sick of the guy he wanted to scream, punch him in the face. "Captain Jeno it is." He exaggerated a salute, feeling a rush of adrenaline, as he knew he'd just crossed a line. A few snickers escaped the crowd, the boys that had been behind him and Jeno looked around, his face bright red. He peered back at Ten, hatred furrowing his brow and crinkling his monstrous nose.

"Just go up the stairs," Jeno said. "And stay away from me, you little slinthead." He pointed up again but didn't take his eyes off Ten. "Fine." Ten looked around one more time, embarrassed, confused, angry. He felt the heat of blood in his face. No one made a move to stop him from doing as Jeno asked, except for Yangyang, who stood at the front door, shaking his head. "You're not supposed to," the younger boy said. "You're a Newbie-you can't go up there."

"Go," said Jeno with a sneer. "Go on up." Ten regretted having come inside in the first place-but he did want to talk to that Kun guy. He started up the stairs. Each step groaned and creaked under his weight; he might've stopped for fear of falling through the old wood if he weren't leaving such an awkward situation below. Up he went, wincing at every splintered sound. The stairs reached a landing, turned left, then came upon a railed hallway leading to several rooms. Only one door had a light coming through the crack at the bottom.

"The Changing!" Jeno shouted from below. "Look forward to it, shuck-face!" As if the taunting gave Ten a sudden burst of courage, he walked over to the lit door, ignoring the creaking floorboards and laughter downstairs-ignoring the onslaught of words he didn't understand, suppressing the dreadful feelings they induced. He reached down, turned the brass handle, and opened the door.

Inside the room, Kun and Taeyong crouched over someone lying on a bed. Ten leaned in closer to see what the fuss was all about, but when he got a clear look at the condition of the patient, his heart went cold. He had to fight the bile that surged up his throat. _What in..._

The look was fast-only a few seconds-but it was enough to haunt him forever. A twisted, pale figure writhing in agony, chest bare and hideous. Tight, rigid cords of sickly green veins webbed across the boy's body and limbs, like ropes under his skin. Purplish bruises covered the kid, red hives, bloody scratches. His bloodshot eyes bulged, darting back and forth. The image had already burned into Ten's mind before Taeyong jumped up, blocking the view but not the moans and screams, they couldn't be stopped as it ringed in his ears, pushing Ten out of the room, then slamming the door shut behind them.

"What're you doing up here, Neo!" Taeyong yelled, his lips taut with anger, eyes on fire. Ten felt weak. "I ... uh ... want some answers," he murmured, but he couldn't put any strength in his words he was feeling heavy and his head swarmed from the memory now slotted in his head. _What was wrong with that kid?_ Ten slouched against the railing in the hallway and stared at the floor, not sure what to do next.

"Get your dumbass down those stairs, right now," Taeyong ordered. "Yangyang'll help you. If I see you again before tomorrow morning, you ain't reaching another day alive. I'll throw you off the Cliff myself, you get me?" Ten was humiliated and scared. He felt like he'd shrunk to the size of a small rat.

Without saying a word, he pushed past Taeyong and headed down the creaky steps, going as fast as he dared. Ignoring the gaping stares of all the boys at the bottom- especially Jeno, he walked out the door, pulling Yangyang by the arm as he did so. Ten hated these people. He hated all of them. Except Yangyang. "Get me away from these guys," Ten said. He realized that Yangyang might actually be his only friend in the world, whatever it was.

"You got it," Yangyang replied, his voice chipper, as if thrilled to be needed. "But first we should get you some food from Doyoung." "I don't know if I can ever eat again." Not after what he'd just seen, the horrible image of that boy. It was too much for him. Yangyang nodded. "Yeah, you will. I'll meet you at the same tree as before. Ten minutes."

Ten as more than happy to get away from the house, and headed back toward the tree. He'd only known what it was like to be alive here for a short while and he already wanted it to end. He wished for all the world he could remember something about his previous life.

\------

Ten leaned against the tree as he waited for Yangyang. He scanned the compound of the Neozone, this new place of nightmares where he seemed destined to live. The shadows from the walls had lengthened considerably, already creeping up the sides of the ivy-covered stone faces on the other side.

At least this helped Ten know directions, the wooden building crouched in the northwest corner, wedged in a darkening patch of shadow, the grove of trees in the southwest. The farm area, where a few workers were still picking their way through the fields, spread across the entire northeast quarter of the vast space.

The animals were in the southeast corner, the same one that had bitten him before was being cut now. Probably going to be eaten. Mooing and crowing and baying at the same direction. In the exact middle of the courtyard, the still gaping hole of the Box lay open, as if inviting him to jump back in and go home. He felt like jumping in, checking if it goes back, maybe he can escape that place.

Near that, maybe twenty feet to the south, stood a squat building made of rough concrete blocks, a menacing iron door its only entrance-there were no windows. A large round handle resembling a steel steering wheel marked the only way to open the door, just like something within a _submarine_.

Despite what he'd just seen, Ten didn't know which he felt more strongly-curiosity to know what was inside, or dread at finding out. Ten had just moved his attention to the four vast openings in the middle of the main walls of the Neozone when Yangyang arrived, a couple of sandwiches cradled in his slim arms, along with apples and two metal cups of water. The sense of relief that flooded through Ten surprised him-he wasn't completely alone in this place, whatever it was.

"Doyoung wasn't too happy about me invading his kitchen before suppertime," Yangyang said, sitting down next to the tree, motioning to Ten to do the same. He did, grabbed the sandwich, but hesitated, the writhing, monstrous image of what he'd seen in the shack popping back into his mind. Soon, though, his hunger won out and he took a huge bite. The wonderful tastes of ham and cheese and mayonnaise filled his mouth.

"Ah, man," Ten mumbled through a mouthful. "I was starving." "Told you." Yangyang chomped into his own sandwich.

After another couple of bites, Ten finally asked the question that had been bothering him. "What's actually wrong with that Jaemin guy? He doesn't even look human anymore. Didn't look like anyone here." Yangyang glanced over at the house. "Don't really know," he muttered absently. "I didn't see him." Ten could tell the boy was being less than honest but decided not to press him, _be quiet,_ Kun had said. Maybe he'll just pester the guy instead.

"Well, you don't want to see him, trust me." He continued to eat, munching on the apples as he studied the huge breaks in the walls. Though it was hard to make out from where he sat, there was something odd about the stone edges of the exits to the outside corridors. He felt an uncomfortable sense of vertigo looking at the towering walls, as if he hovered above them instead of sitting at their base. "What's out there?" he asked, finally breaking the silence. "Is this part of a huge castle or something?" he said almost joking but kept a straight face.

Yangyang hesitated. Looked uncomfortable. "Um, I've never been outside the Neozone." Ten paused. "You're hiding something," he finally replied, finishing off his last bite and taking a long swig of water. The frustration at getting no answers from anyone was starting to grind his nerves. It only made it worse to think that even if he did get answers, he wouldn't know if he'd be getting the truth. "Why are you guys so secretive?" he said in an annoyed tone.

"That's just the way it is. Things are really weird around here, and most of us don't know everything. Half of everything." It bothered Ten that Yangyang didn't seem to care about what he'd just said. That he seemed indifferent to having his life taken away from him. What was wrong with these people? Then again, the kid was too young to worry about anything more than growing up. He couldn't blame him.

Ten got to his feet and started walking toward the eastern opening. "Well, no one said I couldn't look around." He needed to learn something or he was going to lose his mind. "Whoa, wait!" Yangyang cried, running to catch up. "Be careful, those puppies are about to close." He already sounded out of breath. "Close?" Ten repeated. "What are you talking about?" "The Doors, you shank." The kid replied naturally.

"Doors? I don't see any doors." Ten knew Yangyang wasn't just making stuff up, he knew he was missing something obvious. He grew uneasy and realized he'd slowed his pace, not so eager to reach the walls anymore, unlike before when he was almost sprinting. "What do you call those big openings?" Yangyang pointed up at the enormously tall gaps in the walls. They were only about thirty feet or so away now.

"I'd call them big openings," Ten said, trying to counter his discomfort with sarcasm and disappointed that it wasn't working. "Well, they're doors. And they close up every night." Ten stopped, thinking Yangyang had to have said something wrong. He looked up, looked side to side, examined the massive slabs of stone as the uneasy feeling blossomed  
into outright dread. "What do you mean, they close?"

"Just see for yourself in a minute. The Runners'll be back soon and then those big walls are going to move until the gaps are closed."

"You're jacked in the head," Ten muttered. He couldn't see how the mammoth walls could possibly be mobile-felt so sure of it he relaxed, thinking Yangyang was just playing a trick on him. They reached the huge split that led outside to more stone pathways. Ten gaped, his mind emptying of thought as he saw it all firsthand.

"This is called the East Door," Yangyang said, as if proudly revealing a piece of art he'd created. Ten barely heard him, shocked by how much bigger it was up close. At least twenty feet across, the break in the wall went all the way to the top, far above. The edges that bordered the vast opening were smooth, except for one odd, repeating pattern on both sides. On the left side of the East Door, deep holes several inches in diameter and spaced a foot apart were bored into the rock, beginning near the ground and continuing all the way up.

On the right side of the Door, foot-long rods jutted out from the wall edge, also several inches in diameter, in the same pattern as the holes facing them on the other side. The purpose was obvious. "Are you kidding?" Ten asked, the dread slamming back into his gut. "You weren't playing with me? The walls really move?" He couldn't believe the words he heard, he wanted to get a grasp of reality.

"What else would I have meant?"

Ten had a hard time wrapping his mind around the possibility. "I don't know. I figured there was a door that swung shut or a little mini-wall that slid out of the big one. How could these walls move? Looks so rigid, they're huge, and they look like they've been standing here for a thousand years or more." And the idea of those walls closing and trapping him inside this place they called the Neozone was downright terrifying. What all was coming next?

Yangyang threw his arms up, clearly frustrated. "I don't know, they just move. Makes one heck of a grinding noise. Same thing happens out in the Maze-those walls shift every night, too." Ten, his attention suddenly snapped up by a new detail, turned to face the younger boy.

"What did you just say?"  
"Huh?"  
"You just called it a maze-you said, 'same thing happens out in the maze.'"

Yangyang's face reddened. "I'm done with you. I'm done." He walked back toward the tree they'd just left. Ten ignored him, more interested than ever in the outside of the Glade. A maze? In front of him, through the East Door, he could make out passages leading to the left, to the right, and straight ahead. And the walls of the corridors were similar to those that surrounded the Neozone, the ground made of the same massive stone blocks as in the courtyard. The ivy seemed even thicker out there. In the distance, more breaks in the walls led to other paths, and farther down, maybe a hundred yards or so away, the straight passage came to a dead end.

"Looks like a maze," Thomas whispered, almost laughing to himself. As if things couldn't have gotten any stranger. They'd- who ever had sent him here had wiped his memory and put him inside a gigantic maze. It was all so crazy it really did seem funny. His heart skipped a beat when a boy unexpectedly appeared around a corner up ahead, entering the main passage from one of the offshoots to the right, running toward him and the Neozone. Covered in sweat, his face red, clothes sticking to his body, the boy didn't slow, hardly glancing at Ten as he went past.

He headed straight for the squat concrete building located near the Box. Ten turned as he passed, his eyes riveted to the exhausted runner, unsure why this new development surprised him so much. Why wouldn't people go out and search the maze? Then he realized others were entering through the remaining three Glade openings, all of them running and looking as ragged as the guy who'd just whisked by him. There couldn't be much good about the maze if these guys came back looking so weary and worn.

The big door finally popped open, and with a deafening squeal of metal against metal, the boys swung it wide. They disappeared inside, pulling it shut behind them with a loud clonk. Ten stared, his mind churning to come up with any possible explanation for what he'd just witnessed. He couldn't make out anyone but the curiousity didn't die. Nothing developed, but something about that creepy old building gave him goose bumps, a disquieting chill. _What? What is there that's pulling me? Why?_

Someone tugged on his sleeve, breaking him from his thoughts; Yangyang had come back. Before Ten had a chance to think, questions were rushing out of his mouth. "Who are those guys and what were they doing? What's in that building?" He wheeled around and pointed out the East Door. "And why do you live inside a freaking maze?" He felt a rattling pressure of uncertainty, making his head splinter with pain. "I'm not saying another word," Yangyang replied, a new authority filling his voice. "I think you should get to bed early-you'll need your sleep. Ah"-he stopped, held up a finger, pricking up his right ear-"it's about to happen."

"What?" Thomas asked, thinking it kind of strange that Yangyang was suddenly acting like an adult instead of the little kid desperate for a friend he'd been only moments earlier.

A loud boom exploded through the air, making Thomas jump. It was followed by a horrible crunching, grinding sound. He stumbled backward, fell to the ground. It felt as if the whole earth shook; he looked around, panicked. The walls were closing. The walls were really closing-trapping him inside the Glade. An onrushing sense of claustrophobia stifled him, compressed his lungs, as if water filled their cavities.

"Calm down, Neo," Yangyang yelled over the noise. "It's just the walls!"

Ten barely heard him, too fascinated, too shaken by the closing of the Doors. He scrambled to his feet and took a few trembling steps back for a better view, finding it hard to believe what his eyes were seeing. The enormous stone wall to the right of them seemed to defy every known law of physics as it slid along the ground, throwing sparks and dust as it moved, rock against rock. The crunching sound rattled his bones. Ten realized that only that wall was moving, heading for its neighbor to the left, ready to seal shut with its protruding rods slipping into the drilled holes across from it. He looked around at the other openings. It felt like his head was spinning faster than his body, and his stomach flipped over with the dizziness.

On all four sides of the Glade, only the right walls were moving, toward the left, closing the gap of the Doors. Impossible, he thought. How can they do that? He fought the urge to run out there, slip past the moving slabs of rock before they shut, flee the Glade. Common sense won out- the maze held even more unknowns than his situation inside.

He tried to picture in his mind how the structure of it all worked. Massive stone walls, hundreds of feet high, moving like sliding glass doors-an image from his past life that flashed through his thoughts. He tried to grasp the memory, hold on to it, complete the picture with faces, names, a place, but it faded into obscurity. Ten refused to break eye contact but decided to say nothing. Panic ate at him once again. Would things ever stop getting worse?

\------

He lay in silence for the longest time, looking at the stars and listening to the soft murmurs of various conversations drifting across the Neozone, people working and talking, weapons hitting different surfaces. It was dark now, very dark but he couldn't see a single star in the sky. It was blank, just black all over the sky. Fire was lighted around them and a bulb was on the tent food was being cooked at. The cooks. Doyoung and Haechan.

Doyoung was a tall guy with a stern face who was ordering people around for the longest time and Haechan was a honey skinned guy with a cute face, chatting and walking around happily. They were both absorbed in whatever they were cooking.

Yangyang was sharpening a piece of wood with his pocket knife, eyes droopy and softly complaining for being hungry. To ten, sleep felt miles away, and he couldn't shake the despair and hopelessness that coursed through his body and mind, the temporary joy of Yangyang's trick on Jeno earlier had long since faded away. It'd been one endless and... strange day.

It was just so ─ weird. He remembered lots of little things about life; eating, clothes, studying, playing, general images of the makeup of the world. But any detail that would fill in the picture to create a true and complete memory had been erased somehow. It was like looking at an image through a foot of muddy water. More than anything else, perhaps, he felt... sad.  
Yangyang interrupted his thoughts. "Well, Neo, you survived First Day."

"Barely." _Not now,_ he wanted to say. _I'm not in the mood._ Yangyang pulled himself up to sit a little more straight looking at Ten. "You'll learn a lot in the next couple of days, start getting used to things. Good that?" "Um, yeah, good that, I guess. Where'd all these weird words and phrases come from, anyway?" It seemed like they'd taken some other language and melded it with his own. Yangyang flopped back down with a heavy flump. "I don't know. I've only been here a month, remember?" Ten wondered about Yangyang, whether he knew more than he let on.

He was a quirky kid, funny, and he seemed innocent, but who was to say? Really he was just as mysterious as everything else in the Neozone.

A few minutes passed, and Ten felt the long day finally catch up to him, the leaded edge of sleep crossing over his mind. But-like a fist had shoved it in his brain and let go-a thought popped into his head. One that he didn't expect, and he wasn't sure from where it came. Suddenly, the glade, the walls, the Maze-it all seemed ... familiar. Comfortable. A warmth of calmness spread through his chest, and for the first time since he'd found himself there, he didn't feel like the Neozone was the worst place in the universe. He stilled, felt his eyes widen, his breathing stop for a long moment. _What had just happened?_ he thought. _What changed?_

Ironically, the feeling that things would be okay made him slightly uneasy. Not quite understanding how, he knew what he needed to do. He didn't get it. The feeling-the epiphany-was a strange one, foreign and familiar at the same time. But it felt right.

"I want to be one of those guys that goes out there," he said aloud, not knowing if Yangyang was listening or not, pointing at them. "Inside the Maze." "Huh?" was the response from Yangyang Ten could hear a tinge of annoyance in his voice. "Runners," he said, wishing he knew where this was coming from. "Whatever they're doing out there, I want in." "You don't even know what you're talking about," Yangyang grumbled, and went back to sharpening the wood.

Everyone seemed to be awaiting the food, maybe they were good cooks. Or maybe everyone was just too hungry and ate anything edible with interest.

He saw them, the runners. They did match Yangyang's description pretty well but there was a whole bunch more than just the three boys. Some of them went and sat with some other boys while others stayed. Jeno and his group sat right beside Taeyong and Kun, conversing in between. Ten didn't understand the deal, he didn't understand how this whole system worked.

After a while, everyone surrounded the fire with a log in their hand and threw it in the fire laughing loudly after it. It seemed... nice. He spotted Taeyong with a big smile on his face. He looked less scary now, even though he was still a little shaken from all the shouting before. Even Jeno looked harmless as he shouted with excitement but before someone would catch him admiring the scene, he looked away back at the grass.

"Hey Yang. Wanna go talk to Taeyong? He called for you I think." Ten slightly jumps up at the sudden voice and the kid smiles brightly at the mention of Taeyong, running off to his direction. "Chill, Neo. It's just me. I won't hit you with that stick again, unless you run of course." Kun says with a smile and a hand on his shoulder shifting over the log and sits beside him.

"Not participating in the even are ya?" He says in his thick accent and Ten shakes his head. "I'm.. confused." He hears the taller boy sigh and then lumps on the log. Right now, he sits with his back bent unlike how he sits (and stands) all the time, he looks a lot smaller. Ten hasn't seen himself, yet, he thinks even his shoulders are wider than Kun, considering Ten is one of the smallest boys here. "You're not giving up questioning huh?" Kun says and Ten notices how his voice is softer than the rest of the boys, it's not heavy. It's not pitched either. Just soft. Suits him if he's being honest.

Thankfully, the height distribution isn't that uneven. Most boys are around his height or shorter and some are just unfairly tall, a head over them. He cuts of his thoughts as Kun offers him a cup, it looks dark and smells weird. "What's that?" Kun only shrugs at the question. "I don't know.. doyoungie makes this. It's good though, helps me forget things sometimes."

Ten seems puzzled at that, _Why would this boy want to forget? With me, here trying to remember all I can._ He doesn't voice his thoughts and chucks the drink down. It burns his throat and he ends up spitting half of it only to have Kun laugh again. "You klunk." He mutters and takes the cup from his hand. "You'll get used to it, don't worry."

After that, they just sit there in silence and Ten doesn't comment when Kun places his head on his shoulder or scoots a little closer, welcoming the warmth the taller body radiates.

"Well, it's kind of stupid to send me to a place where nothing makes sense and not answer my questions." Ten paused, surprised at himself for speaking all of a sudden. "Shank," he added, throwing all the sarcasm he could into the syllable. Kun broke out in a laugh, but quickly cut it off. Ten decides he likes the male's laugh.

"I like you, Neo." The taller says and looks up at him from his slopped position. For a second, it's like time stops. He stares at Kun's face and the other keeps looking at him. _Lean in._ Before he can fight the voice in his head and right before he's about to touch the plush lips a bare centimeter away a loud shout of 'Kun' makes him hop back.

Kun smiles from where he was, he seems a little out of it and gets up, leaning down to Ten's height making his heart thump loudly. "Now shut it and tomorrow morning, I got to show ya somethin'." He almost notices a wink but decides its the drink messing with his head. His head spins a bit as he gets up and walks to the resting areas.

Before he's totally out of reach, he turns and then clears his throat. "Ten!," He shouts and everyone stares at him. "My name is Ten." Everyone cheers his name with a drink and he smiles.

Maybe, maybe this place isn't that bad.

\-------

Someone shook Ten awake. His eyes snapped open to see a too-close face staring down at him, everything around them still shadowed by the darkness of early morning. He opened his mouth to speak but a cold slim hand clamped down on it, gripping it shut. Panic flared until he saw who it was.

"Shh, Neo. Don't wanna be waking Yangyang now, do we?" It was Kun, the guy who was second in command; the guy he almost kis─ he shook his heard mentally and relaxed a bit, the air reeked of his morning breath. Though Ten was surprised, any alarm melted away immediately. He couldn't help being curious, wondering what this boy wanted with him. Thomas nodded, doing his best to say yes with his eyes, until Newt finally took his hand away, then leaned back on his heels.

"Come on, Neo," the taller boy whispered as he stood. He reached down and helped Ten to his feet-he was strong, a lot stronger than him and it felt like he could rip Ten's arm off.  
"Supposed to show ya somethin' before the wake-up." Any lingering haze of sleep had already vanished from Ten's mind. "Okay," he said simply, ready to follow. He knew he should hold some suspicion, having no reason to trust anyone yet, but the curiosity won out. He quickly leaned over and slipped on his shoes.

"Where are we going?"  
"Just follow me. And stay close."

They snuck their way through the tightly strewn pack of sleeping bodies, Ten almost tripping several times. He stepped on someone's hand, earning a sharp cry of pain in return, then a punch on the calf. "Sorry," he whispered, ignoring a dirty look from Kun.

Once they left the lawn area and stepped onto the hard gray stone of the courtyard floor, Kun broke into a run, heading for the western wall. Ten hesitated at first, wondering why he needed to run, but snapped out of it quickly and followed at the same pace. The light was dim, but any obstructions loomed as darker shadows and he was able to make his way quickly along. He stopped when Kun did, right next to the massive wall towering above them like a _skyscraper_ , another random image that floated in the murky pool of his memory wipe. Thomas noticed small red lights flashing here and there along the wall's face, moving about, stopping, turning off and on.

"What are those?" he whispered as loudly as he dared, wondering if his voice sounded as shaky as he felt. The twinkling red glow of the lights held an undercurrent of warning. Kun stood just a couple of feet in front of the thick curtain of ivy on the wall. "When you bloody need to know, you'll know, Neo."

Kun stepped forward and dug his hands into the thick ivy, spreading several vines away from the wall to reveal a dust-frosted window, a square about two feet wide. It was dark at the moment, as if it had been painted black. "What're we looking for?" Ten whispered. "Hold your undies, boy. One'll be comin' along soon enough."

A minute passed, then two. Several more. Ten fidgeted on his feet, wondering how Kun could stand there, perfectly patient and still, staring into nothing but darkness. Then it changed. Glimmers of an eerie light shone through the window; it cast a wavering spectrum of colors on Kun's body and face, as if he stood next to a lighted swimming pool. Ten grew perfectly still, squinting, trying to make out what was on the other side. A thick lump grew in his throat. What is that? he thought.

"Out there's the Maze," Kun whispered, eyes wide as if in a trance. "Everything we do-our whole life,Neo-revolves around the Maze. Every loving second of every loving day we spend in honour of the Maze, trying to solve somethin' that's not shown us it has a bloody solution, ya know? And we want to show ya why it's not to be messed with. Show ya why them buggin' walls close shut every night. Show ya why you should never, never find your butt out there." Kun stepped back, still holding on to the ivy vines.

He gestured for Ten to take his place and look through the window. Ten did, leaning forward until his nose touched the cool surface of the glass. It took a second for his eyes to focus on the moving object on the other side, to look past the grime and dust and see what Newt wanted him to see. And when he did, he felt his breath catch in his throat, like an icy wind had blown down there and frozen the air solid.

A large, bulbous creature the size of a cow but with no distinct shape twisted and seethed along the ground in the corridor outside. It climbed the opposite wall, then leaped at the thick-glassed window with a loud thump. Ten shrieked before he could stop himself, jerked away from the window-but the thing bounced backward, leaving the glass undamaged. Ten sucked in two huge breaths and leaned in once again. It was too dark to make out clearly, but odd lights flashed from an unknown source, revealing blurs of silver spikes and glistening flesh. Wicked instrument-tipped appendages protruded from its body like arms: a saw blade, a set of shears, long rods whose purpose could only be guessed.

The creature was a horrific mix of animal and machine, and seemed to realize it was being observed, seemed to know what lay inside the walls of the Glade, seemed to want to get inside and feast on human flesh. Ten felt an icy terror blossom in his chest, expand like a tumor, making it hard to breathe. Even with thememory wipe, he felt sure he'd never seen something so truly awful.

He stepped back, the courage he'd felt the previous evening melting away. "What is that thing?" he asked. Something shivered in his gut, and he wondered if he'd ever be able to eat again. "Grievers, we call 'em," Kun answered. "Nasty bugger, eh? Just be glad the Grievers only come out at night. Be thankful for these walls."

Thomas swallowed, wondering how he could ever go out there. His desire to become a Runner had taken a major blow. But he had to do it. Somehow he knew he had to do it. It was such an odd thing to feel, especially after what he'd just seen. Kun looked at the window absently. "Now you know what bloody lurks in the Maze, my friend. Now you know this isn't joke time. You've been sent to the Glade, Neo, and we'll be expecting ya to survive and help us do what we've been sent here to do."

"And what's that?" Ten asked, even though he was terrified to hear the answer. Kun turned to look him dead in the eye. The first traces of dawn had crept up on them, and Ten could see every detail of Kun's face, his skin tight, his brow creased.

"Find our way out, Neo," Newt said. "Solve the bugging Maze and find our way home." A couple of hours later, the doors having reopened, rumbling and grumbling and shaking the ground until they were finished, Ten sat at a worn, tilted picnic table outside the Homestead. All he could think about was the Grievers, what their purpose could be, what they did out there during the night. What it would be like to be attacked by something so terrible. He tried to get the image out of his head, move on to something else. The Runners.

They'd just left without saying a word to anybody, bolting into the Maze at full speed  
and disappearing around corners. He pictured them in his mind as he picked at his eggs and bacon with a fork, speaking to no one, not even Yangyang, who ate silently next to him. The poor kid had exhausted himself trying to start a conversation with Ten, who'd refused to respond. All he wanted was to be left alone. He just didn't get it; his brain was on overload trying to compute the sheer impossibility of the situation. How could a maze, with walls so massive and tall, be so big that dozens of kids hadn't been able to solve it after who knew how long trying?

How could such a structure exist? And more importantly, why? What could possibly be the purpose of such a thing? Why were they all there? How long had they been there? Try as he might to avoid it, his mind still kept wandering back to the image of the vicious Griever. Its phantom brother seemed to leap at him every time he blinked or rubbed his eyes.

Ten knew he was a smart kid-he somehow felt it in his bones. But nothing about this place made any sense. Except for one thing. He was supposed to be a Runner. Why did he feel that so strongly? And even now, after seeing what lived in the maze?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah it's Kunten bois and girls. ;-; Don't come @ me and I think I pretty much hinted this from the start?? I mean, I didn't add the tag for no reason. And the scene is actually in movie which was originally a dare for Dylan and Thomas to kiss but they ended up laughing midway of it. 
> 
> But. 
> 
> Kunten won't be the main ship─ I won't reveal but just know... it's getting nowhere closer. Just a heads up : no Taeyong isn't bad. He's a more complex character, you need to see his viewpoint clearly which I'll detail a bit in the next chapter. I'm also wondering who I should hint having an interest with Taeyong. Also, Kun's image will be portrayed the softest ; reminder this might be different for others. in Ten's perspective the guy has a soft aura and some other might not think like that. I basically picked this from Ten's commentaries because he always mentions Kun as someone sweet and soft yet stern. Also if you notice, Kun's shoulders are inclined downwards and they're not broad at all. 
> 
> Also Jeno looks amazing, his visuals are outstanding and I wanted to add someone else for the character but actually he'll hold an important role later, that's why I don't want to give it to someone I dislike.


	4. Chapter 4

He was getting impatient in all honesty. Taeyong was supposed to give him a tour today, attend his questions but the man was nowhere to be seen around. It irked Ten. Shouldn't he punctual if he was the leader? What a great inspiration indeed. He rolled his eyes and it caught Kun's eyes who raised an eyebrow taking a break from his work and then looking at him. "What do you think you are huh? Some hot boy I wanna eye to keep motivated? Go grab that and help me." He says laughing and then continues planting the sapling in his hand. Ten eyes the shovel he was motioned to and then holds it with a bit of hesitation.

After tomorrow he had decided to stick with Kun. The blonde boy was a little annoying; he cracked some jokes Ten despised and he was... a little weirdly close when he stood with people. Clingy. He had noticed people be close but Kun almost left no space to breathe. If he was any more insane he could say the taller boy always looked like he was about to kiss someone.

But he knew that wasn't the case. He has seen how strict Kun is. He's persistent and when he's annoyed he doesn't like to listen. There wasn't anything exactly _perfect_ about him, but he was all over the place. Almost everyone knew him and needed his help in a few minutes.

Reliable. The boy was reliable and sort of admirable too. A good poster image, he took care of every one and wasn't that impatient, he was more open to listening someone's worries and letting the person cry whereas Taeyong was more stern. A little more pressurising. Maybe that's how they worked; one had to be strict for the other to be soft. Personalities bonded as well as the clashed.

He wouldn't deny, he was thinking about it, what they talked about before. Girls. He knew he liked girls, how? He doesn't know. But something tells him he's attracted to girls. However he wouldn't deny he had been observing everyone, watching and some of the boys caught his attention. They were oddly... _attractive._ He doesn't know why, he doesn't feel any different but something told him he found himself drawn to such boys. Keeping in mind what had happened last night; when he almost kissed Kun, it didn't feel bad. He didn't feel repulsed by the thought neither did he pull away in the moment. If the blond boy had kissed him then, maybe he would even respond back.

Ten shook his head at the thoughts. What am I wasting time on? _I should be doing better things.._ he thought and then his shovel went into the ground digging deep. "What's the deal with you?" Kun finally asked, getting up and his hands were on both sides of his waist. Some boys behind him snickered, as if this was something regular. Maybe Kun did treat them all like this.

"Nothing really─" Before Ten could defend himself Kun cut him off. "Just go sit there and daydream. You're not helping when you're not even here." Ten doesn't fight him, he's not quite interested in doing that work anyway. However, that's what he should be doing. He's here for a reason, he's not here to sit around and be a burden.

Kun scowls and continues doing his work as Ten sits under the tree, not too far away. The boy, he gave... a sense of security. Even if he felt lost here, something about him felt familiar, felt better and comforting. He was too selfish and scared to separate himself so soon. He felt like a little animal latching in the nest not yet ready to step outside. Much like how Yangyang does, he understands why the teenager likes the second in command so much.

"Can I be a runner?" Ten says out loud and makes around three or four of them turn their head towards him. Kun wipes his forehead and chuckles deeply. "Runner Tennie? Really? Out of everything, you wanna be a runner.. stop dreaming. It's not a good work, I know it looks fun and all out there but keep this in your mind, its not." Ten wants to question. Why Kun says that? Has he even been out there? If he did then why is he here now? Should Ten really be questioning it? Not really because he's barely been here but there are many things he wants to know.

Once again, he swallows his questions and turns his head to the gates once and then looks down.

Kun squinted his eyes at him and then threw a bucket in his hand. "Go bring some mud from the east. Johnny isn't here today you're lucky otherwise he'd be screaming at you for standing idle." He says with a smug grin and Ten scowls turning away before Kun calls out for him and he let's out an irritated, "What?" "East is that side." Kun says and Ten feels the embarrassment rush into him. "I was gonna take the longer route." He lies and turns around going to where he was commanded.

Honestly, as he digs into the situation Ten can see why they're so hot headed at times, it's frustrating, he's been here for barely a day and he already hates this place so much. He can't imagine how it is for people who have been here for who knows how long.

If he's honest he's not even sure why Kun is putting up with him at all, he can just be rude like everyone else and order him around throwing insults left and right or even going as far as to causing physical injury. The man is genuinely a lot more calm than most people there. He's thankful if anything. Ten doesn't want one more person like Minho to make him feel more scared than he already does in this strange place.

At some point his thoughts linger to the boy, Jaemin, who's sick. Why is he that sick? What can cause someone to end up like _that_? No one is going to tell him but it only brings him sickness in his stomach and now a sweaty body from the image of him. At one point he sees the grievere in his mind and it makes him almost stumble and fall. Why did these images strike in his head at the same time? Maybe they're just disturbing enough to shake his heart so much he's thrown into a semi panic attack.

Ten grips his chest and takes deep breaths. Before he can let his mind wander more, it'll only continue to get worse he knows it in the back of his head because much more horrifying scenarios are rising up and he quickly picks the soft mud in the bucket, slightly cringes at how it sticks to his hand and then heads back to Kun.

"Feeling tired Tennie?" The boy asks and he sees concern on his face, he's not mocking him to make him feel weak. Ten gives a small nod and Kun holds his arm, stepping closer, rubbing his hand on his' as he had seen the boy do to a number of people when he was calming them down or solving fights between people. _Maybe this boy has some magic._ He thinks and then laughs at his own irrational thought. He probably looks so distressed that it didn't take Kun a lot too guess he's not feeling well.

"Go sit there, take your rest. I'm sorry the previous incident probably overwhelmed you. Thank you for bringing this." Kun passes him a small smile and goes back to working. Ten wonders for a moment if he's referring to the sick boy or the griever but at some point he decides it's both and then relaxes on the ground. He shouldn't sit here idly again but it did affect him. Ten wanted to spend some time thinking and seeing if he can remember something too so he just rests his head on the tree and watches as the boys work in front of him.

\------

A tap on his shoulder jarred him from his thoughts; he looked up to see Taeyong standing   
behind him, hand in his pocket and the other slid of his own arm. “Ain’t you lookin’ fresh?” Taeyong said mocking his terrified expression and uneven breathing. “Get a nice view out the window this morning?” Ten stood, hoping the time for answers had come or maybe hoping for a distraction from his gloomy thoughts. Any would be good. “Enough to make me want to learn about this place,” he said, hoping to avoid provoking the temper he’d seen flare in this guy the day before.

Taeyong odded. “Me and you, shank. The Tour begins now.” He started to move but then stopped, holding up a finger. “No questions till the end, you get me? Ain’t got time to jaw with you all day.” “But …” Ten stopped when Taeyong’s eyebrows shot up. _Why did the guy have to be such a jerk?_ “But tell me everything... I wanna know everything.” He’d decided the night before not to tell anyone else how strangely familiar the place seemed, the odd feeling that he’d been there before; that he could remember things about it. Sharing that seemed like a very bad idea.

“I’ll tell ya what I wanna tell ya, Greenie. Let’s go.”

“Can I come?” Yangyang asked from the table. Taeyong reached down and tweaked the boy’s ear. “Ow!” Yangyang shrieked. “You got no job, slinthead?” Taeyong asked. “Lots of sloppin’ to do?” Yangyang rolled his eyes, then looked at Ten. “Have fun.” “I’ll try.” He suddenly felt sorry for Yangyang, wished people would treat the kid better. But there was nothing he could do about it. He didn't even know anyone here. It was time to go. He walked away with Taeyong, hoping the Tour had officially begun.

They started at the Box, the one he came in, which was closed at the moment; double doors of metal lying flat on the ground, covered in white paint, faded and cracked. The day had brightened considerably, the shadows stretching in the opposite direction from what Thomas had seen yesterday. He still hadn’t spotted the sun, but it looked like it was about to pop over the eastern wall at any minute.

Taeyong pointed down at the doors. “This here’s the Box. Once a month, we get a Newbie like you, never fails. Once a week, we get supplies, clothes, some food. There's not need of a lot, pretty much run ourselves in the Glade.” Ten nodded, his whole body itching with the desire to ask questions. _I need some tape to put over my mouth,_ he thought. “We don’t know jack about the Box, you get me?” Taeyong continued.

“Where it came from, how it gets here, who’s in charge. The shanks that sent us here ain’t told us nothing. We got all the electricity we need, grow and raise most of our food, get clothes and such. Tried to send a slinthead Neo back in the Box one time—thing wouldn’t move till we took him out.” Ten wondered what lay under the doors when the Box wasn’t there, but held his tongue. He felt such a mixture of emotions; curiosity, frustration, wonder, all laced with the lingering horror of seeing the Griever that morning.

Still he kept staring and thinking of various ways to go down there. What actually is in there that it doesn't go down knowing someone is inside it? What after it goes down? He hesitated to ask and then sighed storing his questions to himself. It was better to not ask, this guy lost his temper too frequent without it too, Ten didn't have a death wish or any plans of testing the punishments they have here.

Taeyong kept talking, never bothering to look Ten in the eye. “Glade’s cut into four sections.” He held up his fingers as he counted off the next four words. “Gardens, Blood House, Homestead, Deadheads. You got that?” Ten hesitated, then shook his head, confused.

Taeyong’s eyelids fluttered briefly as he continued; he looked like he could think of a thousand things he’d rather be doing right then. He pointed to the northeast corner, where the fields and fruit trees were located. “Gardens, where we grow the crops. Water’s pumped in through pipes in the ground, always has been, or we’d have starved to death a long time ago. Never rains here. Never.”

He pointed to the southeast corner, at the animal pens and barn. “Blood House, where we raise and slaughter animals.” He pointed at the pitiful living quarters. “Homestead, the stupid place is twice as big than when the first of us got here because we keep addin’ to it when they send us wood and klunk. Ain’t pretty, but it works. Most of us sleep outside anyway.” Ten felt dizzy. So many questions splintered his mind he couldn’t keep them straight.

Taeyong pointed to the southwest corner, the forest area fronted with several sickly trees and benches. “Call that the Deadheads. Graveyard’s back in that corner, in the thicker woods. Ain’t much else. You can go there to sit and rest, hang out, whatever.” He cleared his throat, as if wanting to change subjects. “You’ll spend the next 2 weeks working one day apiece for our different job Keepers; until we know what you’re best at, if you are of course. Slopper, Bricknick, Bagger, Track-hoe somethin’ll stick, always does. Come on.”

Taeyong walked toward the South Door, located between what he’d called the Deadheads and the Blood House. Ten followed, wrinkling his nose up at the sudden smell of dirt and manure coming from the animal pens. Graveyard? he thought. Why do they need a graveyard in a place full of teenagers? That disturbed him even more than not knowing some of the words Taeyong kept saying, words like Slopper and Bagger, that didn’t sound so good. He came as close to interrupting Taeyong as he’d done so far, but willed his mouth shut.

Frustrated, he turned his attention to the pens in the Blood House area.

Several cows nibbled and chewed at a trough full of greenish hay. Pigs lounged in a muddy pit, an occasionally flickering tail the only sign they were alive. Another pen held sheep, and there were chicken coops and turkey cages as well. Workers bustled about the area, looking as if they’d spent their whole lives on a farm. _Why do I remember these animals?_ Thomas wondered. Nothing about them seemed new or interesting— he knew what they were called, what they normally ate, what they looked like. Why was stuff like that still lodged in his memory, but not where he’d seen animals before, or with whom? His memory loss was baffling in its complexity.

Taeyong pointed to the large barn in the back corner, its red paint long faded to a dull rust color. “Back there’s where the Slicers work. Nasty stuff, that. Nasty. If you like blood, you can be a Slicer.” Ten shook his head. Slicer didn’t sound good at all. As they kept walking, he focused his attention on the other side of the Glade, the section Taeyong had called the Deadheads.

The trees grew thicker and denser the farther back in the corner they went, more alive and full of leaves. Dark shadows filled the depths of the wooded area, despite the time of day. Ten looked up, squinting to see that the sun was finally visible, though it looked odd— more orange than it should be. It hit him that this was yet another example of the odd selective memory in his mind. He returned his gaze to the Deadheads, a glowing disk still floating in his vision.

Blinking to clear it away, he suddenly caught the red lights again, flickering and skittering about deep in the darkness of the woods. What are those things? he wondered, irritated that Taeyong hadn’t answered him earlier. The secrecy was very annoying. Taeyong stopped walking, and Ten was surprised to see they’d reached the South Door; the two walls bracketing the exit towered above them. The thick slabs of gray stone were cracked and covered in ivy, as ancient as anything Thomas could imagine.

He craned his neck to see the top of the walls far above; his mind spun with the odd sensation that he was looking down, not up. He staggered back a step, awed once again by the structure of his new home, then finally returned his attention to Taeyong, who had his back to the exit. “Out there’s the Maze.” Taeyong jabbed a thumb over his shoulder, then paused. Ten stared in that direction, through the gap in the walls that served as an exit from the Glade. The corridors out there looked much the same as the ones he’d seen from the window by the East Door early that morning.

He stepped forward, wanting to see the Maze for himself, as if the answers were printed on the walls out there. Taeyong held out a hand and pushed Ten in the chest, sent him stumbling backward. “Ain’t no goin’ out there, shank.” Ten had to suppress his pride. “Why not?” “You think I sent Newt to ya before the wake-up just for kicks? Freak, that’s the Number One Rule, the only one you’ll never be forgiven for breaking. Ain’t nobody, _nobody_ allowed in the Maze except the Runners. Break that rule, and if you ain’t killed by the Grievers, we’ll kill you ourselves, you get me?”

Ten nodded, grumbling inside, sure that Taeyong was exaggerating. Hoping that he was (they wouldn't just throw him, kill him right? After this tour and feeding him. Or was he like an animal?). Either way, if he’d had any doubt about what he’d told Yangyang the night before, it had now completely vanished. He wanted to be a Runner. He would be a Runner

This thought gave him a chill, made him wonder if a Griever might come charging toward them at any minute. He took a step backward before realising what he was doing. _Calm down,_ he chided himself, embarrassed.

Before he could wait for Taeyong to start talking more the blonde haired boy, Kun, came from the direction of med bay. He was walking a little awkwardly, a limp but despite that he was fast. Fast enough to catch up with them in a short amount of time. He wondered if it was a temporary injury but let it slide. "Hey TY. Traumatized the newbie enough or still left?" He says smiling brightly and makes the dark haired boy role his eyes.

"Just showing him around. Didn't even threaten him yet." He says and then looks in the blonde boy's direction nudging him. "I'll go check on him now. Got more stuff to do than babysitting a newbie. Continue for me yeah?" Kun nods and pats the skinny boy's back and then turns to Ten. "Still talking about Maze huh? You really got some klunk in your head.

Kun continues. “I know what you feel, he's too strict. Sharp. But it's because he knows the place more than anyone, he's doing it for your good. Two years, Taeyong's been here. Ain’t none been here longer. The few before him are already dead.” Ten felt his eyes widen, his heart quicken. “Two years we’ve tried to solve this thing, no luck. Shucking walls move out there at night just as much as these here doors. Mappin’ it out ain’t easy, ain’t easy nohow.” He nodded toward the concrete-blocked building into which the Runners had disappeared the night before.

Another stab of pain sliced through Ten’s head; there were too many things to compute at once. _They’d been here two years? The walls moved out in the Maze? How many had died?_ Deep inside he knew he had to go out there, into the Maze. Despite everything he’d learned and witnessed firsthand, it called to him as much as hunger or thirst.

He doesn't try to peep into their business as Kun and Taeyong exchange words, he sees how they're almost chest to chest, Taeyong's hand wandering over the other's lower back and Kun's hands are rubbing his arm softly. He feels a little bulge rise up his throat and he doesn't understand. _I don't possibly like boys do I? Not Kun at least._ He tries to keep his thoughts rational but he can't help how he becomes nervous.

These guys know each other longer than him, even if they do have a romantic relationship he can't do anything. He barely arrived yesterday, does he really expect someone to fall in love with him? He had seen both of them be close to almost everyone, maybe, _maybe,_ there's nothing as such as he assumes.

Then again, even if there is, it's none of his business. He's not the person who should pry in someone's personal life. He looks away and then stares back at the surrounding, anywhere away from the boys in front of him.

A movement up on the left wall of the South Door caught his attention. Startled, he reacted quickly, looking just in time to see a flash of silver. A patch of ivy shook as the thing disappeared into it. Ten pointed up at the wall. “What was that?” he asked before he could be shut down again. Taeyong didn’t bother looking still talking to Kun. “No questions till the end, shank. I didn't tell ya?” He paused, then let out a sigh. “Beetle blades—it’s how the Creators watch us. You better not—” He was cut off by a booming, ringing alarm that sounded from all directions.

Ten clamped his hands to his ears, looking around as the siren blared, his heart about to   
thump its way out of his chest. But when he focused back on Kun, he stopped. Taeyong wasn’t acting scared, he appeared… confused. Concerned too if he was able to read him right. Surprised. The alarm clanged through the air. “What’s going on?” Ten asked. Relief flooded his chest that his tour guide didn’t seem to think the world was about to end—but even so, Ten was getting tired of being hit by waves of panic.

“That’s weird” was all Taeyong said as he scanned the Neozone, squinting. Thomas noticed people in the Blood House pens glancing around, apparently just as confused. One shouted to Taeyong, a short, skinny kid drenched in mud.

“What’s up with that?” the boy asked, looking to Ten for some reason. “I don’t know,” Taeyong murmured back in a distant voice. But Ten couldn’t stand it anymore. “Taeyong! What’s going on?” “The Box, shuck-face, the Box!” was all Taeyong said before he set off for the middle of the space at a brisk pace that almost looked to Ten like panic.

“What about it?” Ten demanded, hurrying to catch up. _Talk to me!_ he wanted to scream at him. But they both didn’t answer or slow down, and disappeared from his sight. As he got closer to the box Ten could see that dozens of kids were running around the courtyard. He spotted Kun and called to him, trying to suppress his rising fear, telling himself things would be okay, that there had to be a reasonable explanation. “Kun, what’s going on!” he yelled. Kun glanced over at him, then nodded and walked over, strangely calm in the middle of the chaos.

He swatted Ten on the back. “Means a bloody Newbie’s comin' up in the Box.” He paused as if expecting Ten to be impressed. “Right now.” “So?” As Ten looked more closely at Kun, he realized that what he’d mistaken for calm was actually disbelief—maybe even excitement.

“So?” Kun replied, his jaw dropping slightly, clearly not expecting Ten to be that unenthusiastic. “Neo, we’ve never had two Newbies show up in the same month, much less two days in a row.” And with that, he ran off toward the Homestead.

\-----

The alarm finally stopped after blaring for a full two minutes. A crowd was gathered in the middle of the courtyard around the steel doors through which Ten was startled to realize he’d arrived just yesterday. Yesterday? he thought. Was that really just yesterday? Someone tapped him on the elbow; he looked over to see Yangyang by his side again.

“How goes it, Neo?” Yangyang asked. “Fine,” he replied, even though nothing could’ve been further from the truth. He pointed toward the doors of the Box. “Why is everyone freaking out? Isn’t this how you all got here?” Yangyang shrugged. “I don’t know—guess it’s always been real regular-like. One a month, every month, same day. Maybe whoever’s in charge realized you were nothing but a big mistake, sent someone to replace you.” He giggled as he elbowed Ten in the ribs, a high-pitched snicker that inexplicably made Ten like him more. Ten shot his new friend a fake glare. “You’re annoying. Seriously.”

“Yeah, but we’re buddies, now, right?” Yangyang fully laughed this time, a squeaky sort of snort. “Looks like you’re not giving me much choice on that one.” But truth was, he needed a friend, and Yangyang would do just fine. The kid folded his arms, looking very satisfied. “Glad that’s settled, neo. Everyone needs a buddy in this place.” Ten grabbed Yangyang by the collar, joking around. “Okay, buddy, then call me by my name. Ten. Or I’ll throw you down the hole after the Box leaves.” That triggered a thought in his head as he released Yangyang. “Wait a minute, have you guys ever—” “Tried it,” Yangyang interrupted before Ten could finish.

“Tried what?”

“Going down in the Box after it makes a delivery,” Yangyang answered. “It won’t do it. Won’t go down until it’s completely empty.” Ten remembered Taeyong telling him that very thing. “I already knew that, but what about-" “Tried it.” Ten had to suppress a groan—this was getting irritating. “Man you’re hard to talk to. Tried what?” “Going through the hole after the Box goes down. Can’t. Doors will open, but there’s just emptiness, blackness, nothing. No ropes, nothing. Can’t do it.” How could that be possible? “Did you—” “Tried it.” Ten did groan this time. “Okay, what?"

“We threw some things into the hole. Never heard them land. It goes on for a long time.” Ten paused before he replied, not wanting to be cut off again. “What are you, a mind reader or something?” He threw as much sarcasm as he could into the comment. “Just brilliant, that’s all.” Yangyang winked. “Yangyang, never wink at me again.” Ten said it with a smile. Yangyang was a little annoying, but there was something about him that made things seem less terrible. Ten took a deep breath and looked back toward the crowd around the hole. “So, how long until the delivery gets here?” “Usually takes about half an hour after the alarm.”

Ten thought for a second. There had to be something they hadn’t tried. “You’re sure about the hole? Have you ever …” He paused, waiting for the interruption, but none came. “Have you ever tried making a rope?” “Yeah, they did. With the ivy. Longest one they could possibly make. Let’s just say that little experiment didn’t go so well.” “What do you mean?” What now? Ten thought. “I wasn’t here, but I heard the kid who volunteered to do it had only gone down about ten feet when something swooshed through the air and cut him clean in half.”

“What?” Ten laughed. “I don’t believe that for a second.” “Oh, yeah, smart guy? I’ve seen the sucker’s bones. Cut in half like a knife through whipped cream. They keep him in a box to remind future kids not to be so stupid.” Ten waited for Yangyang to laugh or smile, thinking it had to be a joke—who ever heard of someone being cut in half? But it never came. “You’re serious?” Yangyang just stared back at him. “I don’t lie, Neo—uh, Ten. Come on, let’s go over and see who’s coming up. I can’t believe you only have to be the Neo for one day. Klunkhead.”

As they walked over, Ten asked the one question he hadn’t posed yet. “How do you know it’s not just supplies or whatever?” “The alarm doesn’t go off when that happens,” Yangyang answered, simply. “The supplies come up at the same time every week. Hey, look.” Yangyang stopped and pointed to someone in the crowd. It was Jeno, staring dead at them. “Shuck it,” Yangyang said. “He does not like you, man.” “Yeah,” Ten muttered. “Figured that out already.” And the feeling was mutual.

It wasn't new, Jeno had been giving him bad looks since he got here and now here again. Seemed like the guy had no chill in his head, everywhere Ten went, at anytime he would see the boy glare at him as if he was angry at something Ten did. The only thing he had ever done to Jeno was the incident in the bathrooms and someone can't be _that_ mad over a prank can they?

Yangyang nudged Ten with his elbow and the boys resumed their walk to the edge of the crowd, then waited in silence; any questions Ten had were forgotten. He’d lost the urge to talk after seeing Jeno. Yangyang apparently hadn’t. “Why don’t you go ask him what his problem is?” he asked, trying to sound tough. Ten had thought of it. Several times when he'd see Jeno and his group always glare at him as if they would attack him any time they get to. He was thinking about a lot of things and one of them might've been this.

Ten wanted to think he was brave enough, but that currently sounded like the worst idea in history. “Well, for one, he has a lot more allies than I do. Not a good person to pick a fight with.” He swiftly answered and somehow, he wasn't lying. They were true but they were not the only things holding him back. “Yeah, but you’re smarter. And I bet you’re quicker. You could take him and all his buddies.”

One of the boys standing in front of them looked back over his shoulder, annoyance crossing his face. Must be a friend of Jeno’s, Ten thought. “Would you shut it?” he hissed at Yangyang.

A door closed behind them; Ten turned to see Taeyong and Kun heading over from the Homestead. They both looked exhausted. Seeing them brought Jaemin back to his mind—along with the horrific image of him writhing in bed for the second time in the day, he almost wondered if he could ever forget that image in his life, how were the others even managing to bare with it everyday?

“Yangyang, man, you gotta tell me what this whole Changing business is. What have they been doing in there with that poor Jaemin kid?” Yangyang shrugged. “Don’t know the details. The Grievers do bad things to you, make your whole body go through something awful. When it’s over, you’re… different.” Ten sensed a chance to finally have a solid answer.

“Different? What do you mean? And what does it have to do with the Grievers? Is that what Gally meant 'by being stung’?” “Shh.” Yangyang held a finger to his mouth. Ten almost screamed in frustration, but he kept quiet. He resolved to make Yangyang tell him later, whether the guy wanted to or not. In their short time he has learned some good weak spots of the kid and he's going to stoop the low branch just to get his answers; _morals_ weren't priority here.

Taeyong and Kun had reached the crowd and pushed themselves to the front, it was strange how most of them just made way for them on their own while some seemed indifferent to it and only moved after being signaled with a light gesture of hand, standing right over the doors that led to the Box.

Everyone quieted, and for the first time, Ten noted the grinds and rattles of the rising lift, reminding him of his own nightmarish trip the day before. Sadness washed over him, almost as if he were reliving those few terrible minutes of awakening in darkness to the memory loss. He felt sorry for whoever this new kid was, going through the same things. A muffled boom announced that the bizarre elevator had arrived. Ten watched in anticipation as Kun and Taeyong took positions on opposite sides of the shaft doors—a crack split the metal square right down the middle. Simple hook- handles were attached on both sides, and together they yanked them apart. With a metallic scrape the doors were opened, and a puff of dust from the surrounding stone rose into the air.

Complete silence settled over the NCT. As Kun leaned over to get a better look into the Box, the faint bleating of a goat in the distance echoed across the courtyard. Ten leaned forward as far as he possibly could, hoping to get a glance at the newcomer. With a sudden jerk, Kun pushed himself back into an upright position, his face scrunched up in confusion. “Holy …,” he breathed, looking around at nothing in particular.

By this time, Taeyong had gotten a good look as well, with a similar reaction. “No way,” he murmured, almost in a trance, whereas Kun was more unamused than anything. Taeyong seemed a little drawn and Kun seemed distant. However, both looked equally confused and seemed to be questioning a lot of things; thinking a lot of things. A chorus of questions filled the air as everyone began pushing forward to get a look into the small opening, Ten being amongst them.

 _What do they see down there?_ Ten wondered. _What do they see!_ He felt a sliver of muted fear, similar to what he’d experienced that morning when he stepped toward the window to see the Griever.

“Hold on!” Taeyong yelled, silencing everyone. “Just hold on!” “Well, what’s wrong?” someone yelled back. Taeyong stood up. “Two Newbies in two days,” he said, almost in a whisper. “Now this. Two years, nothing different, now this.” Then, for some reason, he looked straight at Ten. “What’s goin’ on here, Neo?” Ten stared back, confused, his face turning bright red, his gut clenching. _Are they really suspecting me? And for what?_ “How am I supposed to know?” He didn't intend to sound as defensive as he did but he doesn't mind it.

“Why don’t you just tell us what the shuck is down there, Taeyong?” Jeno called out. There were more murmurs and another surge forward. Perhaps, not just Ten, but the whole NCT didn't like to be kept in the dark. They all needed answers, this time, no one could shut them up. Not any rule or any word. “You shanks shut up!” Taeyong yelled. “Tell ’em, Kun.” Kun looked down in the Box one more time, then faced the crowd, gravely.

“It’s a girl,” he said.

Everyone started talking at once; Ten only caught pieces here and there.

_“A girl?”_   
_“I got dibs!”_   
_“What’s she look like?”_   
_“How old is she?”_

Ten was drowning in a sea of confusion. A girl? He hadn’t even thought about why the Neozone only had boys, no girls. Hadn’t even had the chance to notice, really. Who is she? he wondered. Why— Kun shushed them again. “That’s not bloody half of it,” he said, then pointed down into the Box. “I think she’s dead.” A couple of boys grabbed some ropes made from ivy vines and lowered Taeyong and Kun into the Box so they could retrieve the girl’s body.

A mood of reserved shock had come over most of the NCT, who were milling about with solemn faces, kicking loose rocks and not saying much at all. No one dared admit they couldn’t wait to see the girl, but Ten assumed they were all just as curious as he was.

Jeno was one of the boys holding on to the ropes, ready to hoist her, Taeyong and Kun out of the Box. Ten watched him closely. His eyes were laced with something dark— almost a sick fascination? Hatred? A gleam that made Ten suddenly more scared of him than he’d been minutes earlier. From deep in the shaft came Taeyong’s voice shouting that they were ready, and Jeno and a couple of others started pulling up on the rope. A few grunts later and the girl’s lifeless body was dragged out, across the edge of the door and onto one of the stone blocks making up the ground of the Neozone.

Everyone immediately ran forward, forming a packed crowd around her, a palpable excitement hovering in the air. But Ten stayed back. The eerie silence gave him the creeps, as if they’d just opened up a recently laid tomb.

Despite his own curiosity, Ten didn’t bother trying to force his way through to get a look—the bodies were too tightly squeezed together. But he had caught a glimpse of her before being blocked off. She was thin, but not too small. Maybe five and a half feet tall, from what he could tell. She looked like she could be sixteen or seventeen years old, and her hair was tar black. But the thing that had really stood out to him was her skin: pale, not from a clean or untanned gesture. Sickly pale.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know Ten mentions Kun *a lot* but in the series Thomas follows Newt like a lost puppy everywhere he goes and that's why I might or might've not exaggerated this connect between them because it's needed when they'll further have decisions to make for who they trust. 
> 
> And I can't assume anyone's sexuality and it was never given in the book. That's why I haven't given any restricted sexuality to them. Thomas however showed a clear interest in Teresa and later had a one sided Brenda plot- yeah don't kill me. I neither know about Ten's sexuality irl nor Thomas's. 
> 
> Heads up warning : I keep hinting Johnny's presence but he has a bg role until they escape. I'm also deciding on who should be the girl and I'm very indecisive.


	5. Chapter 5

Kun and Taeyong scrambled out of the Box after her, then forced their way through to the girl’s lifeless body, the crowd re-forming behind to cut them off from Ten’s view. Only a few seconds later, the group parted again, and Kun was pointing straight at Ten.

“Neo, get over here,” he said, not bothering to be polite about it.Ten’s heart jumped into his throat; his hands started to sweat. What did they want him for? Things just kept getting worse and worse. He forced himself to walk forward, trying to seem innocent without acting like someone who was guilty who was trying to act innocent. Oh, calm it, he told himself. You haven’t done anything wrong. But he had a strange feeling that maybe he had without realizing it.

The boys lining the path to Kun and the girl glared at him as he walked past, as if he were responsible for the entire mess of the Maze and the Neozone and the Grievers. Ten refused to make eye contact with any of them, afraid of looking guilty. He approached Kun and Taeyong, who both knelt beside the girl. Ten, not wanting to meet their stares, concentrated on the girl; despite her paleness, she was really pretty. More than pretty. Beautiful. Silky hair, flawless skin, perfect lips, long legs. It made him sick to think that way about a dead girl, but he couldn’t look away. Won’t be that way for long, he thought with a queasy twist in his stomach. 

_She’ll start rotting soon._

He was surprised at having such a morbid thought.

“You know this girl, shank?” Taeyong asked, sounding ticked off.Ten was shocked by the question. “Know her? Of course I don’t know her. I don’t know anyone. Except for you guys.”“That’s not …,” Taeyong began, then stopped with a frustrated sigh. “I meant does she look familiar at all? Any kind of feelin’ you’ve seen her before?” “No. Nothing.” Ten shifted, looked down at his feet, then back at the girl.

Taeyong’s forehead creased. “You’re sure?” He looked like he didn’t believe a word Ten said, seemed almost angry. What could he possibly think I have to do with this? Ten thought. He met Taeyong’s glare evenly and answered the only way he knew how. “Yes. Why?” “Shuck it,” Taeyong muttered, looking back down at the girl. “Can’t be a coincidence. Two days, two Neos, one alive, one dead.”

Then Taeyong’s words started to make sense and panic flared in Ten. “You don’t think I …” He couldn’t even finish the sentence. “Slim it, Neo,” Kun said. “We’re not sayin’ you bloody killed the girl.” Ten’s mind was spinning. He was sure he’d never seen her before—but then the slightest hint of doubt crept into his mind. “I swear she doesn’t look familiar at all,” he said anyway. He’d had enough accusations.“Are you—” Before Kun could finish, the girl shot up into a sitting position. As she sucked in a huge breath, her eyes snapped open and she blinked, looking around at the crowd surrounding her. 

Taeyong cried out and fell backward. Kun gasped and jumped up, stumbling away from her. Ten didn’t move, his gaze locked on the girl, frozen in fear. Burning blue eyes darted back and forth as she took deep breaths. Her pink lips trembled as she mumbled something over and over, indecipherable. Then she spoke one sentence—her voice hollow and haunted, but clear.

She stared at him and her eyes softened for a moment. "Ten.." It was barely audible but enough to get everyone's attention. She seemed to remember something and then she looked straight ahead, "Everything is going to change.”

Ten stared in wonder as her eyes rolled up into her head and she fell back to the ground. Her right fist shot into the air as she landed, staying rigid after she grew still, pointing toward the sky. Clutched in her hand was a wadded piece of paper. Ten tried to swallow but his mouth was too dry. Kun ran forward and pulled her fingers apart, grabbing the paper. With shaking hands he unfolded it, then dropped to his knees, spreading out the note on the ground. Ten moved up behind him to get a look.

Scrawled across the paper in thick black letters were five words:

_She’s the last one. Ever._

An odd moment of complete silence hung over the Neozone. It was as if a supernatural wind had swept through the place and sucked out all sound. Kun had read the message aloud for those who couldn’t see the paper, but instead of erupting in confusion, the Neozone all stood dumbfounded. Ten would’ve expected shouts and questions, arguments. But no one said a word; all eyes were glued to the girl, now lying there as if asleep, her chest rising and falling with shallow breaths. Contrary to their original conclusion, she was very much alive.

For whatever reason she had spoke his name, it was now with her as she laid unconscious. Suspicions were on him. He had denied even seeing her ever in his life and she looked at him with such.. warmth. But Ten was right, he was speaking the truth and he barely knew anything himself to hide. There was no way in hell if it existed that he knew this girl. She looked familiar but it could just be an empty deja vu.

Kun stood, and Ten hoped for an explanation, a voice of reason, a calming presence. But all he did was crumple the note in his fist, veins popping from his skin as he squeezed it, and Ten’s heart sank. He wasn’t sure why, but the situation made him very uneasy. Taeyong cupped his hands around his mouth. “Med-jacks!” Ten wondered what that word meant—he knew he’d heard it before—but then he was abruptly knocked aside.

Two boys were pushing their way through the crowd—one was tall with a buzz cut, he looked a lot younger than even himself. The other was short and actually had gray hair already conquering the black on the sides of his head however he didn't look old enough to get them from aging.

Tencould only hope they’d make some sense of everything.“So what do we do with her?” the taller one asked, his voice much higher pitched than

Ten expected.“How should I know?” Taeyong said. “You two shanks are the Med-jacks—figure it out.” Med-jacks, Ten repeated in his head, a light going off. They must be the closest thing they have to doctors. The short one was already on the ground, kneeling beside the girl, feeling for her pulse and leaning over to listen to her heartbeat. “Who said Taeil had first shot at her?” someone yelled from the crowd. 

There were several barks of laughter. “I’m next!”

How can they joke around? Ten thought. The girl’s half dead. He felt sick inside.Taeyong’s eyes narrowed; his mouth pulled into a tight grin that didn’t look like it had anything to do with humor. “If anybody touches this girl,” Taeyong said, “you’re gonna spend the night sleepin’ with the Grievers in the Maze. Banished, no questions.” He paused, turning in a slow circle as if he wanted every person to see his face. “Ain’t nobody better touch her! Nobody!”

It was the first time Ten had actually liked hearing something come out of Taeyong’s mouth. The short guy who’d been referred to as a Med-jack—Taeil, if the spectator had been correct—stood up from his examination. “She seems fine. Breathing okay, normal heartbeat. Though it’s a bit slow. Your guess is as good as mine, but I’d say she’s in a coma. Chenle, let’s take her to the Homestead.”His partner, Chenle, stepped over to grab her by the arms while Taeil took hold of her feet. Ten wished he could do more than watch—with every passing second, he doubted more and more that what he’d said earlier was true. 

She did seem familiar; he felt a connection to her, though it was impossible to grasp in his mind. The idea made him nervous, and he looked around, as if someone might’ve heard his thoughts. “On the count of three,” Chenle, the taller Med-jack, was saying, his tall frame looking ridiculous bent in half, like a praying mantis. “One … two … three!” They lifted her with a quick jerk, almost throwing her up in the air—she was obviously a lot lighter than they’d thought—and Ten almost shouted at them to be more careful.

“Guess we’ll have to see what she does,” Chenle said to no one in particular. “We can feed her soupy stuff if she doesn’t wake up soon.” “Just watch her closely,” Kun said. “Must be something special about her or they wouldn’t have sent her here.” Ten’s gut clenched. He knew that he and the girl were connected somehow. They’d come a day apart, she seemed familiar, he had a consuming urge to become a Runner despite learning so many terrible things…. What did it all mean? Taeyong leaned over to look in her face once more before they carried her off.

“Put her next to Jaemin’s room, and keep a watch on her day and night. Nothin’ better happen without me knowing about it. I don’t care if she talks in her sleep or takes a klunk—you come tell me.” “Yeah,” Chenle muttered; then he and Taeil shuffled off to the Homestead, the girl’s body bouncing as they went, and the other Neozoners finally started to talk about it, scattering as theories bubbled through the air.

Ten watched all this in mute contemplation. This strange connection he felt wasn’t his alone. The not-so-veiled accusations thrown at him only a few minutes before proved that the others suspected something, too, but what? He was already completely confused—being blamed for things only made him feel worse. As if reading his thoughts,

Taeyong walked over and grabbed him by the shoulder. “You ain’t never seen her before?” he asked.

Ten hesitated before he answered. “Not … no, not that I remember.” He hoped his shaky voice didn’t betray his doubts. What if he did know her somehow? What would that mean? “You’re sure?” Kun prodded, standing right behind Taeyong. “I … no, I don’t think so. Why are you grilling me like this?” All Ten wanted right then was for night to fall, so he could be alone, go to sleep. Taeyong shook his head, then turned back to Kun, releasing his grip on Ten’s shoulder. 

\-------

He couldn’t believe how quickly the light disappeared. After the girl had come up everyone had been staring daggers at him. If not then they wouldn't look at him and it made him sick. He didn't even know who she was yet somehow people seemed to assume he had something to do with her. Kun had come around for a while but didn't talk much either; Ten would like to convince himself it's just the stress but he knows better than to feed himself lies. At least the blonde man didn't say anything mean or glare at him.

Ten was grateful for the company. Yangyang was cool and nice but he was just a kid after all. He couldn't— wouldn't get what he says and wont understand his concern. He needed someone of his own age, someone to pay attention and answer him, someone with knowledge. Kun fulfilled all those columns. He had even asked the taller to accompany him to the forest but only received a laugh and, "I like fancy dates."

After a scowl and a nudge Kun promised to be around the area in case he got stuck in the mud (which he wouldn't.)

From the Neozone proper, the forest didn’t look that big, maybe a couple of acres. Yet the trees were tall with sturdy trunks, packed tightly together, the canopy up above thick with leaves. The air around him had a greenish, muted hue, as if only several minutes of twilight remained in the day. It was somehow beautiful and creepy, all at once.

Moving as fast as he could, Ten crashed through the heavy foliage, thin branches slapping at his face. He ducked to avoid a low-hanging limb, almost falling. Reaching out, he caught hold of a branch and swung himself forward to regain his balance. A thick bed of leaves and fallen twigs crunched underneath him. All the while, his eyes stayed riveted on the beetle blade scuttling across the forest floor. Deeper it went, its red light glowing brighter as the surroundings darkened. Ten had charged thirty or forty feet into the woods, dodging and ducking and losing ground with every second, when the beetle blade jumped onto a particularly large tree and scooted up its trunk.

But by the time Ten reached the tree, any sign of the creature had vanished. It had disappeared deep within the foliage—almost as if it had never existed.

He’d lost the sucker.

“Shuck it,” Ten whispered, almost as a joke. Almost. As strange as it seemed, the word felt natural on his lips, like he was already morphing into NCT. A twig snapped somewhere to his right and he jerked his head in that direction. He stilled his breath, listened. Another snap, this time louder, almost like someone had broken a stick over their knee.

“Who’s there?” Ten yelled out, a tingle of fear shooting across his shoulders. His voice bounced off the canopy of leaves above him, echoing through the air. He stayed frozen, rooted to the spot as all grew silent, except for the whistling song of a few birds in the distance. But no one answered his call. Nor did he hear any more sounds from that direction.

Without really thinking it through, Ten headed toward the noise he’d heard. Not bothering to hide his progress, he pushed aside branches as he walked, letting them whip back to position when he passed. He squinted, willed his eyes to work in the growing darkness, wishing he had a flashlight. He thought about flashlights and his memory. Once again, he remembered a tangible thing from his past, but couldn’t assign it to any specific time or place, couldn’t associate it with any other person or event.

Frustrating, frustrating, frustrating.

“Anybody there?” he asked again, feeling a little calmer since the noise hadn’t repeated. It was probably just an animal, maybe another beetle blade. Just in case, he called out, “It’s me, Ten. The new guy. Well, second-newest guy.” He winced and shook his head, hoping now that no one was there. He sounded like a complete idiot.

Again, no reply.

He stepped around a large oak and pulled up short. An icy shiver ran down his back. He’d reached the graveyard. The clearing was small, maybe thirty square feet, and covered with a thick layer of leafy weeds growing close to the ground. Ten could see several clumsily prepared wooden crosses poking through this growth, their horizontal pieces lashed to the upright ones with a splintery twine. The grave markers had been painted white, but by someone in an obvious hurry—gelled globs covered them and bare streaks of wood showed through. Names had been carved into the wood.

Ten stepped up, hesitantly, to the closest one and knelt down to get a look. The light was so dull now that he almost felt as if he were looking through black mist. Even the birds had quieted, like they’d gone to bed for the night, and the sound of insects was barely noticeable, or at least much less than normal. For the first time, Ten realized how humid it was in the woods, the damp air already beading sweat on his forehead, the backs of his hands.

He leaned closer to the first cross. It looked fresh and bore the name Stephen—the n extra small and right at the edge because the carver hadn’t estimated well how much room he’d need. Suhyuck, Ten thought, feeling an unexpected but detached sorrow. What’s your story? Yangyang annoy you to death?

He stood and walked over to another cross, this one almost completely overgrown with weeds, the ground firm at its base. Whoever it was, he must’ve been one of the first to die, because his grave looked the oldest. The name was Taehyun.

Ten looked around and saw there were a dozen or so other graves. A couple of them appeared to be just as fresh as the first one he’d examined. A silvery glint caught his attention. It was different from the scuttling beetle that had led him to the forest, but just as odd. He moved through the markers until he got to a grave covered with a sheet of grimy plastic or glass, its edges slimed with filth. He squinted, trying to make out what was on the other side, then gasped when it came into focus.

It was a window into another grave—one that had the dusty remnants of a rotting body. Completely creeped out, Ten leaned closer to get a better look anyway, curious. The tomb was smaller than usual—only the top half of the deceased person lay inside. He remembered Yangyang’s story about the boy who’d tried to rappel down the dark hole of the Box after it had descended, only to be cut in two by something slicing through the air. Words were etched on the glass; Ten could barely read them:

_Let this half-shank be a warning to all:_

_You can’t escape through the Box Hole._

Ten felt the odd urge to snicker—it seemed too ridiculous to be true. But he was also disgusted with himself for being so shallow and glib. Shaking his head, he had stepped aside to read more names of the dead when another twig broke, this time straight in front of him, right behind the trees on the other side of the graveyard. Then another snap. Then another. Coming closer. And the darkness was thick.

“Who’s out there?” he called, his voice shaky and hollow—it sounded as if he were speaking inside an insulated tunnel. “Seriously, this is stupid.” He hated to admit to himself just how terrified he was. Instead of answering, the person gave up all pre-tense of stealth and started running, crashing through the forest line around the clearing of the graveyard, circling toward the spot where Ten stood. He froze, panic overtaking him.

Now only a few feet away, the visitor grew louder and louder until Ten caught a shadowed glimpse of a skinny boy limping along in a strange, lilting run. “Who the he—” The boy burst through the trees before Ten could finish. He saw only a flash of pale skin and enormous eyes—the haunted image of an apparition—and cried out, tried to run, but it was too late. The figure leaped into the air and was on top of him, slamming into his shoulders, gripping him with strong hands. Ten crashed to the ground; he felt a grave marker dig into his back before it snapped in two, burning a deep scratch along his flesh.

He pushed and swatted at his attacker, a relentless jumble of skin and bones cavorting on top of him as he tried to gain purchase. It seemed like a monster, a horror from a nightmare, but Ten knew it had to be NCT, someone who’d completely lost his mind. He heard teeth snapping open and closed, a horrific clack, clack, clack. Then he felt the jarring dagger of pain as the boy’s mouth found a home, bit deeply into Ten’s shoulder.

Ten screamed, the pain like a burst of adrenaline through his blood. He planted the palms of his hands against his attacker’s chest and pushed, straightening his armsuntil his muscles strained against the struggling figure above him. Finally the kid fell back; a sharp crack filled the air as another grave marker met its demise. Ten squirmed away on his hands and feet, sucking in breaths of air, and got his first good look at the crazed attacker.

_It was the sick boy. It was_ _Jaemin_ _._

It looked as if Jaemin had recovered only slightly since Ten had seen him in the Homestead. He wore nothing but shorts, his whiter-than-white skin stretched across his bones like a sheet wrapped tightly around a bundle of sticks. Ropelike veins ran along his body, pulsing and green—but less pronounced than the day before. His bloodshot eyes fell upon Ten as if he were seeing his next meal. Jaemin crouched, ready to spring for another attack. At some point a knife had made an  
appearance, gripped in his right hand.

Ten was filled with a queasy fear, disbelief  
that this was happening at all. “Jaemin!” Ten looked toward the voice, surprised to see Taeyong standing at the edge of the graveyard, Kun right behind him, a mere phantom in the fading light. Relief flooded Ten’s body—Kun held a large bow, an arrow cocked for the kill, pointed straight at Jaemin. “Jaemin,” Taeyong repeated. “Stop right now, or you ain’t gonna see tomorrow.”

Ten looked back at Jaemin, who stared viciously at Taeyong, his tongue darting between his lips to wet them. What could possibly be wrong with that kid? Ten thought. The boy had turned into a monster. Why? “If you kill me,” Jaemin shrieked, spittle flying from his mouth, far enough to hit Ten in the face, “you’ll get the wrong guy.” He snapped his gaze back to Ten. “He’s the shank you wanna kill.” His voice was full of madness. “Don’t be stupid, Min” This time it was Kun said, his voice calm as he continued to aim the arrow.

“Tennie just got here—ain’t nothing to worry about. You’re still buggin’ from the changing. You should’ve never left your bed.” “He’s not one of us!” Jaemin shouted. “I saw him—he’s … he’s bad. We have to kill him! Let me gut him!” Ten took an involuntary step backward, horrified by what Jaemin had said. What did he mean, he’d seen him? Why did he think Ten was bad? Kun hadn’t moved his weapon an inch, still aiming for Jaemin and he gave Taeyong one glance who nodded and spoke again. “You leave that to me and the Keepers to figure out, shuck-face.” Kun's hands were perfectly steady as he held the bow, almost as if he had propped it against a branch for support.

“Right now, back your scrawny butt down and get to the Homestead.” “He’ll wanna take us home,” Jaemin said. “He’ll wanna get us out of the Maze. Better we all jumped off the Cliff! Better we tore each other’s guts out!”“What are you talking—” Ten began. “Shut your face!” Jaemin screamed. “Shut your ugly, traitorous face!” “Jaemin,” Taeyong said calmly. “I’m gonna count to three.” “He’s bad, he’s bad, he’s bad …,” Jaemin was whispering now, almost chanting. He swayed back and forth, switching the knife from hand to hand, eyes glued on Ten.

“One.”

“Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad …” Jaemin smiled; his teeth seemed to glow, greenish in the pale light. Ten wanted to look away, get out of there. But he couldn’t move; he was too mesmerized, too scared.

“Two.” Taeyong’s voice was louder, filled with warning. “Jaemin,” Ten said, trying to make sense of it all. “I’m not … I don’t even know what—” Jaemin screamed, a strangled gurgle of madness, and leaped into the air, slashing out with his blade.

“Three!” Taeyong shouted.

There was the sound of snapping wire, he didn't have to turn to know it was Kun. The whoosh of an object slicing through the air. The sickening, wet thunk of it finding a home. Jaemin’s head snapped violently to the left, twisting his body until he landed on his stomach, his feet pointed toward Ten. He made no sound.

Ten jumped to his feet and stumbled forward. The long shaft of the arrow stuck from Jaemin’s cheek, the blood surprisingly less than Ten had expected, but seeping out all the same. Black in the darkness, like oil. The only movement was Jaemin’s right pinky finger, twitching. Ten fought the urge to puke. Was Jaemin dead because of him? Was it his fault?

“Come on,” Taeyong said. “Baggers’ll take care of him tomorrow.”

What just happened here? Ten thought, the world tilting around him as he stared at the lifeless body. What did I ever do to this kid? He looked up, wanting answers, but Taeyong was already gone, a trembling branch the only sign he’d ever stood there in the first place and Kun stood there in silence, eyes sad when he stared at Jaemin and he knew he couldn't ask the blonde this time. Ten squeezed his eyes against the blinding light of the sun as he emerged from the woods.

He was limping, his ankle screaming in pain, though he had no memory of hurting it. He held one hand carefully over the area where he’d been bitten; the other clutched his stomach as if that would prevent what Ten now felt was an inevitable barf. The image of Jaemin’s head popped into his mind, cocked at an unnatural angle, blood running down the shaft of the arrow until it collected, dripped, splattered on the ground….

The image of it was the last straw.

He fell to his knees by one of the scraggly trees on the outskirts of the forest and threw up, retching as he coughed and spat out every last morsel of the acidic, nasty bile from his stomach. His whole body shook, and it seemed like the vomiting would never end. The soothing rub of the blonde boy's hand wasn't helpful either. No, he was too scared, too disturbed.

And then, as if his brain were mocking him, trying to make it worse, he had a thought. He’d now been at the Glade for roughly twenty-four hours. One full day. That was it. And look at all the things that had happened. All the terrible things. Some ways that his mouth twisted, his sweaty body and uneven breathing along with shaky hands probably made Kun understand his small massage on the shoulder wasn't helping in this moment and he stopped. He walked to Taeyong who was waiting with hands on his waist and nodded his head,

“Something’s whacked. Call a Gathering.”

\-------

He said it quietly enough that Ten didn’t think anyone else heard, but it sounded ominous. Then the leader and Kun walked off, and Ten was relieved to see Yangyang coming his way. “Yangyang, what’s a Gathering?” He looked proud to know the answer. “It’s when the Keepers meet—they only call one when something weird or terrible happens.”

“Well, I guess today fits both of those categories pretty well.” Ten’s stomach rumbled, interrupting his thoughts. “I didn’t finish my breakfast—can we get something somewhere? I’m starving.”

Yangyang looked up at him, his eyebrows raised. “Seeing that chick wig out made you hungry? You must be more psycho than I thought.” Ten sighed. “Just get me some food.” The kitchen was small but had everything one needed to make a hearty meal. A big oven, a microwave, a dishwasher, a couple of tables. It seemed old and run-down but clean. Seeing the appliances and the familiar layout made Ten feel as if memories— real, solid memories—were right on the edge of his mind. But again, the essential parts were missing—names, faces, places, events. It was maddening.

“Take a seat,” Yangyang said. “I’ll get you something—but I swear this is the last time. Just be glad Doyoung isn’t around—he hates it when we raid his fridge.” Ten was relieved they were alone. As Yangyang fumbled about with dishes and things from the fridge, Ten pulled out a wooden chair from a small plastic table and sat down. “This is crazy. How can this be for real? Somebody sent us here. Somebody evil.”

Yangyang paused. “Quit complaining. Just accept it and don’t think about it.” “Yeah, right.” Ten looked out a window. This seemed a good time to bring up one of the million questions bouncing through his brain. “So where does the electricity come from?”

“Who cares? I’ll take it.” What a surprise, Ten thought. No answer.

Yangyang brought two plates with sandwiches and carrots over to the table. The bread was thick and white, the carrots a sparkling, bright orange. Ten’s stomach begged him to hurry; he picked up his sandwich and started devouring it. “Oh, man,” he mumbled with a full mouth. “At least the food is good.” Ten was able to eat the rest of his meal without another word from Yangyang. And he was lucky that the kid didn’t feel like talking, because despite the complete weirdness of everything that had happened within Ten’s known reach of memory, he felt calm again.

His stomach full, his energy replenished, his mind thankful for a few moments of silence, he decided that from then on he’d quit whining and deal with things. After his last bite, Ten sat back in his chair. “So, Yangyang,” he said as he wiped his mouth with a napkin. “What do I have to do to become a Runner?” “Not that again.” Yangyang looked up from his plate, where he’d been picking at the crumbs. He let out a low, gurgly burp that made Ten cringe. “Taeyong said I’d start my trials soon with the different Keepers.

So, when do I get a shot with the Runners?” Ten waited patiently to get some sort of actual information from Yangyang. Yangyang rolled his eyes dramatically, leaving no doubt as to how stupid an idea he thought that would be. “They should be back in a few hours. Why don’t you ask them?”

Surely it could only get better.

That night, Ten lay staring at the sparkling sky, wondering if he’d ever sleep again. Every time he closed his eyes, the monstrous image of Jaemin leaping at him, the boy’s face set in lunacy, filled his mind. Eyes opened or not, he could swear he kept hearing the moist thunk of the arrow slamming into Jaemin’s cheek. Ten knew he’d never forget those few terrible minutes in the graveyard.

“Say something,” Yangyang said for the fifth time since they’d set out their sleeping bags. “No,” Ten replied, just as he had before. “Everyone knows what happened. It’s happened once or twice—some Griever-stung shank flipped out and attacked somebody. Don’t think you’re special.” For the first time, Ten thought Yangyang’s personality had gone from mildly irritating to intolerable. “Yangyang, be glad I’m not holding Kun’s bow right about now.”

“I’m just play—” “Shut up, Yangyang. Go to sleep.” Ten just couldn’t handle it right then. Eventually, his “buddy” did doze off, and based on the rumble of snores across the Neozone, so did everyone else. Hours later, deep in the night, Ten was still the only one awake. He wanted to cry, but didn’t. He wanted to find Taeyong and punch him, for no reason whatsoever, but didn’t. He wanted to scream and kick and spit and open up the Box and jump into the blackness below. But he didn’t.

He closed his eyes and forced the thoughts and dark images away and at some point he fell asleep. Yangyang had to drag Ten out of his sleeping bag in the morning, drag him to the showers, and drag him to the dressing rooms. The whole time, Ten felt mopey and indifferent, his head aching, his body wanting more sleep. Breakfast was a blur, and an hour after it was over, Ten couldn’t remember what he’d eaten. He was so tired, his brain felt like someone had gone in and stapled it to his skull in a dozen places.

Heartburn ravaged his chest. But from what he could tell, naps were frowned upon in the giant working farm of the Neozone. He stood with Kun in front of the barn of the Blood House, getting ready for his first training session with a Keeper. Despite the rough morning, he was actually excited to learn more, and for the chance to get his mind off Jaemin and the graveyard. Cows mooed, sheep bleated, pigs squealed all around him. Somewhere close by, a dog barked, making Ten hope Doyoung didn’t bring new meaning to the word hot dog. Hot dog, he thought.

When’s the last time I had a hot dog? Who did I eat it with? “Tennie, are you even listening to me?” Ten snapped out of his daze and focused on Kun, who’d been talking for who knew how long; Ten hadn’t heard a word of it. “Yeah, sorry. Couldn’t sleep last night.”

Kun attempted a pathetic smile but he looked.. disappointed for a split second before his expressions changed faster than Ten could catch. “Can’t blame ya there. Went through the buggin’ ringer, you did. Probably think I’m a slinthead shank for gettin’ you ready to work your butt off today after an episode the likes of that.” Ten shrugged. “Work’s probably the best thing I could do. Anything to get my mind off it.” Kun nodded, and his smile became more genuine.

“You’re as smart as you look, Tennie. That’s one of the reasons we run this place all nice and busy-like. You get lazy, you get sad. Start givin’ up. Plain and simple.” Ten nodded, absently kicking a loose rock across the dusty, cracked stone floor of the Neozone. “So what’s the latest on that girl from yesterday?” If anything had penetrated the haze of his long morning, it had been thoughts of her. He wanted to know more about her, understand the odd connection he felt to her.

“Still in a coma, sleepin’. Med-jacks are spoon-feeding her whatever soups Doyoung can cook up, checking her vitals and such. She seems okay, just dead to the world for now.” “That was just plain weird.” If it hadn’t been for the whole Jaemin-in-the-graveyard incident, Ten was sure she would’ve been all he’d thought about last night. Maybe he wouldn’t have been able to sleep for an entirely different reason. He wanted to know who she was and if he really did know her somehow.

“Yeah,” Kun said. “Weird’s as good a word as any, I ’spect.” Ten looked over Kun’s shoulder at the big faded-red barn, pushing thoughts of the girl aside. “So what’s first? Milk cows or slaughter some poor little pigs?” Kun laughed, a sound Ten realized he hadn’t heard much since he’d arrived. “We always make the Newbies start with the bloody Slicers. Don’t worry, cuttin’ up Doyoung’s victuals ain’t but a part. Slicers do anything and everything dealin’ with the beasties.”

“Too bad I can’t remember my whole life. Maybe I love killing animals.” He was just joking, but Kun didn’t seem to get it. Kun nodded toward the barn. “Oh, you’ll know good and well by the time sun sets tonight. Let’s go meet Yuta—he’s the Keeper.” Yuta was a quite kid, sometimes, mostly he would stick by a few people and had a loud personality, skinny but muscular, and it seemed to Ten the Keeper liked his job way too much. _Maybe he was sent here for being a serial killer,_ he thought.

Yuta showed Ten around for the first hour, pointing out which pens held which animals, where the chicken and turkey coops were, what went where in the barn. The dog, a pesky black Lab named Bark, took quickly to Ten, hanging at his feet the entire tour. Wondering where the dog came from, Ten asked Yuta, who said Bark had just always been there. Luckily, he seemed to have gotten his name as a joke, because he was pretty quiet.

The second hour was spent actually working with the farm animals—feeding, cleaning, fixing a fence, scraping up klunk. Klunk. Ten found himself using the Neozone terms more and more. The third hour was the hardest for Ten. He had to watch as Yuta slaughtered a hog and began preparing its many parts for future eating. Ten swore two things to himself as he walked away for lunch break. First, his career would not be with the animals; second, he’d never again eat something that came out of a pig.

He looked up to see Kun leaning against a log and smiling at the pair. "How's it going Tennie? I hope our favourite slicer is treating you well." He says in the same sweet tone he keeps all the time. "Kun, I'm the _only_ slicer here besides Haechan who screams more than he helps me."

Kun laughs and pats Yuta's back, stepping closer settling his head on the boy's back. "You're still our favourite though." He says and Yuta gives him a fond smile. Ten hadn't realized just how close everyone was with each other, all of them seemed to know each other well and he almost felt like an intruder. "Tell me if you feel sick or think it gets too much alright?" He feels the hand linger on his arm just like always for a few moments before he walks out going towards the tower.

"He's fond of you." Yuta says and Ten raises his eyebrow. It's nothing special, Kun treats all newbies like that... _right?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah our little Ten is showing interest in the girl- don't worry.. don't worry I'll make sure they don't interact too much. Kidding but please see that Thomas and Teresa, besides their crush were great friends so they need to have a good amount of interactions and all of them will not be romantic, they're like best friends too before anything. 
> 
> This is also where Kun will start going into the best friend list, yeah. He will be by his side, but now Ten will start exploring more. Learning more. He will talk to others- he's growing up so fast *sob*. 
> 
> Next chapter we'll have another important character reveal. I already have someone for the role and I hope you find that deserving. Yes I know I'm not very subtle, actually not subtle at all about Kun's pathetic crush on Ten but let's just say he admires Ten's (non-existent) intelligence and also not @ Ten not taking hints at all.


End file.
